Joint Specification Team

Terms of Reference

The Joint Specification Team (JST) is a group of active ESMF users that interact with the Core Team and the broader community, providing requirements, feedback, and a standards track. Membership is open and communication is mainly through frequent telecons.

Since the JST is comprised mainly of Earth science application developers who have experience using ESMF, it is the body best equipped to review and refine the ESMF Application Programming Interface (API). JST members may provide interface specifications along with requirements, or may review interfaces after prototypes have been developed by the Core Team. The balance between the JST and Core Team is fundamental to the ESMF organizational structure. The JST interface review and standards activity places an important aspect of ESMF development in the hands of users, thereby promoting community ownership.

Members and Meetings

The JST is comprised of members of the ESMF user community, meeting jointly with members of the Core Team. It holds weekly telecons to discuss priorities, meeting agendas, design and implementation issues, and other relevant topics. Membership is open.

Charge and Reporting

• Generate functional requirements.
• Confirm implemented requirements.
• Participate in design and code reviews.
• Provide general feedback.
• Submit support requests, feature requests, and bug reports.
• Provide code contributions.
• Promote and develop the ESMF API as an interface standard.
• Liaise with other projects (shared responsibility with other ESMF bodies).