Creation of the Certification Special Interest Group is being conducted with the help of Malcolm WOODMAN.

Certification was discussed between CO-LaN Management Board and CO-LaN members at the CAPE-OPEN 2016 Annual Meeting, more specifically during the Certification workshop organized there.

Following this Workshop, CO-LaN Management Board revised its proposal and presented an updated scheme for certification at the CAPE-OPEN 2017 Annual Meeting. The revised proposal presented by Linde on behalf of the Management Board includes the creation of a Certification Special Interest Group.

In order to set up the Certification Special Interest Group, CO-LaN has contracted Malcolm WOODMAN on June 20, 2018 with end of 2018 as target for the SIG creation. A Technical Steering Group was created in order to define the technical scope, functionalities and design of the Certification Test Software.

At the CAPE-OPEN 2019 Annual Meeting, Malcolm WOODMAN presented on the technical requirements issued by the Technical Steering Group for the Certification Test Software. In another presentation at the same meeting, Malcolm proposed a number of business models of certification for discussion by the CAPE-OPEN community.

At the CAPE-OPEN 2020 Annual Meeting, Oliver KOCH reported on the impact of CO-LaN new funding model on the certification process, on the technical resources secured for the testing suite development.

On February 3, 2021, CO-LaN distributed a questionnaire to software vendors on the envisioned use of CO-LaN testing software within their testing processes;

On February 11, 2021, CO-LaN Management launched the high-level design phase of the testing software with completion expected by mid-April 2021.