Preface Standards development within the Information Technology sector is harmonized with international standards development. Through the CSA Technical Committee on Information Technology (TCIT), Canadians serve as the Canadian Advisory Committee (CAC) on ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 on Information Technology (ISO/IEC JTC1) for the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), the ISO member body for Canada and sponsor of the Canadian National Committee of the IEC. Also, as a member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Canada participates in the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (ITU-T). Scope This Recommendation | International Standard: gives an introduction and motivation for ODP; provides an overview of the Reference Model of Open Distributed Processing (RM-ODP) and an explanation of its key concepts; gives guidance on the application of the RM-ODP. This Recommendation | International Standard covers both overview and detailed explanation, and can be consulted in various ways when reading the standards: a) if you intend to read only this Recommendation | International Standard, to gain a general understanding of the importance of ODP to your organization, concentrate on clause 6; b) if you intend to study the whole RM-ODP, you should also read clause 6 before moving on to ITU-T Rec. X.902 | ISO/IEC 10746-2 and ITU-T Rec. X.903 | ISO/IEC 10746-3; c) as you read ITU-T Rec. X.902 | ISO/IEC 10746-2 and ITU-T Rec. X.903 | ISO/IEC 10746-3 you may wish to consult clauses 7 to 10, which give supporting explanation for the various concepts that these common texts define; d) when you have completed a first reading of ITU-T Rec. X.902 | ISO/IEC 10746-2 and ITU-T Rec. X.903 | ISO/IEC 10746-3, read clauses 11 and 12 which discuss the use of standards in ODP system specifications, and provide some examples of applying the ODP concepts in the specification of systems.