Partial draft for #13

recommendations/BP0015-assessing-utility-sustainability/BP0015-assessing-utility-sustainability.md

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+# BP0015: Assessing Utility Sustainability
+- Authors: [Mathieu Glaude]([email protected]),[Claudia Grytz]([email protected]), [Dan Gisolfi]([email protected]), [Sarah Olfert]([email protected])
+- Deliverable Type: *Recommendation - Best Practice*
+- Status: [PROPOSED](https://trustoverip.github.io/deliverables/process/lifecycle_management/#proposed)
+- Since: 2020-12-xx (date you submit your PR)
+- Status Note: Pending readiness of new deliverable repo for formal proposals
+- Supersedes: NA
+- Start Date: 2020-11-20
+- Tags: #ufwg, #recommendation
+
+## Summary
+
+The objective of this best practice document is to provide guidance on how to assess the sustainability of an existing [Public Identity Utility](link to glossary term) (PUI). For the purpose of this Best Practice document, we will solely focus on blockchain-based public identity utilities.
+
+## Motivation
+
+### Why are we doing this?
+
+This document is being written as a [result of multiple interviews](https://github.com/trustoverip/utility-foundry-wg/tree/master/workflow/stories) that were conducted with utility project conveners in October 2020. We spoke with conveners and participants of these following PIUs.
+
+A common theme that came across the discussions was related to the sustainability of a PIU, more specifically how a particular PIU will help deploy a business model that will ensure long-term operational success.
+
+Assessing sustainability should be considered as a core due diligence activity when evaluating a PIU.
+
+### What are the expected outcomes?
+
+We hope this Best Practice document will serve as a tool among others to help:
+
+(a) Organizations/Ecosystems who want to evaluate an existing public identity utility using a framework to project the highest ROI and minimized risks.
+
+(b) Organizations/Ecosystems interested in convening a new public identity utility to have a framework to evaluate what is out there today and what market gap their utility can fill.
+
+
+## Scope
+
+```
+Briefly describe the scope of this document – how it presents the architecture of this particular enabler.  Include an explanation of how this architecture relates to Organization Name activity.  If it adds clarity, also describe what is not in the scope of this architecture.  DELETE THIS COMMENT
+```
+
+
+
+## Best Practices
+
+### Lesson 1: Assess business sustainability
+
+* How well funded are they?
+* What is their burn rate?
+* What is their revenue model?
+* What are their financial projections?
+* What are their customer acquisition or growth projections?
+* What are their accounts receivables?
+* Are they profitable today or not?
+* Does the public identity utility offer other services?  How do they charge for services?
+* How does the public identity utility charge their members?
+
+
+### Lesson 2: Assess legal sustainability
+
+* What type of corporation are they?
+* Where is the location of the corporation?
+* What is the corporate governance structure?
+* Who are the directors of the organization?
+* Who are the beneficial owners of the organization?
+
+
+### Lesson 3: Assess technology sustainability
+
+* Are the PIU’s technologies standards-based?
+* Are the technologies used in the PIU based on open source technologies or open source projects?
+* If it is not open source, who is supporting and contributing to the repositories?
+* What contracts does the PIU have with technology providers? Do they have long term contracts or short term contracts?
+
+### Lesson 4: Assess social sustainability
+
+The goal of a sustainable business strategy is to make a positive impact on either one of those areas. When companies fail to assume responsibility, the opposite can happen, leading to issues like environmental degradation, inequality, and social injustice.
+
+* Is the PIU going to grow long-term based on how accessible they make it to people?
+* Will the PIU be sustainable long-term based on how they are dealing with inclusivity? (the whole concept of identity for all)
+* How is the PIU dealing with privacy?
+* How is the PIU making supply chain decisions? Are they contracting work to poor countries for cheap labor in unethical conditions?
+* What effect does the PIU have on the environment?
+* How much waste is the organization creating?
+* Is the organization culture struggling?
+* Are the PIU hiring practices attracting diverse job candidates?
+* Are the PIU products targeted to help a certain audience?
+* What impact does the PIU have on the local community?
+
+
+### Lesson 5: Assess governance sustainability
+
+* Who are the different parties or organizations involved in decision-making?
+* Who are the individuals that have influential roles or decision-making roles?
+* How is the actual network governed regarding such things like updating the network, running consensus on transactions and adding parties to the network?
+* How is the performance of the network being governed and managed, and how is that information being made transparent?
+* Is the PIU publishing their governance structure openly?
+* What is the policy for publishing any issues/findings with the network?
+* How are they proactively fixing defects?
+
+
+## To-Do Items
+1. Submit for PR
+2

recommendations/BP0016-determining-utility-affordability/BP0016-determining-utility-affordability.md

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+# BP0016: Determining Utility Affordability
+- Authors: [Mathieu Glaude]([email protected]), [Claudia Grytz]([email protected]), [Dan Gisolfi]([email protected]), [Sarah Olfert]([email protected])
+- Deliverable Type: *Recommendation - Best Practice*
+- Status: [PROPOSED](https://trustoverip.github.io/deliverables/process/lifecycle_management/#proposed)
+- Since: 2020-12-xx (date you submit your PR)
+- Status Note: Pending readiness of new deliverable repo for formal proposals
+- Supersedes: NA
+- Start Date: 2020-11-20
+- Tags: #ufwg, #recommendation
+
+>NOTE: This guide is subject to refinement and approval from the Concepts and Terminology WG as they will define the format of glossaries. It is also expected that Glossaries may have an online rendering format.
+
+## Summary
+
+The objective of this best practice document is to provide guidance on how to determine the affordability of an existing [Public Identity Utility](link to glossary term) (PUI). For the purpose of this Best Practice document, we will solely focus on blockchain-based public identity utilities.
+
+## Motivation
+
+### Why are we doing this?
+
+This document is being written as a [result of multiple interviews](https://github.com/trustoverip/utility-foundry-wg/tree/master/workflow/stories) that were conducted with utility project conveners in October 2020. We spoke with conveners and participants of these following PIUs.
+
+A common theme that came across the discussions was related to the affordability, or budgetary concerns to be considered before adopting an existing PIU.
+
+Determining affordability should be considered as a core due diligence activity when evaluating a PIU.
+
+### What are the expected outcomes?
+
+We hope this Best Practice document will serve as a tool among others to help:
+
+(a) Organizations/Ecosystems who want to evaluate an existing public identity utility using a framework to project the highest ROI and minimized risks.
+
+(b) Organizations/Ecosystems interested in convening a new public identity utility to have a framework to evaluate what is out there today and what market gap their utility can fill.
+
+
+## Scope
+
+```
+Briefly describe the scope of this document – how it presents the architecture of this particular enabler.  Include an explanation of how this architecture relates to Organization Name activity.  If it adds clarity, also describe what is not in the scope of this architecture.  DELETE THIS COMMENT
+```
+
+
+## Best Practices
+
+### Lesson 1: Determine business affordability
+
+* What drives a PIU’s cost is important: find out what is driving their cost to see it is based on things which we think will go up in the future, or downwards. For example, if 60% of their cost components are driven by data centers,  that’s great because we know that the data center costs are going down over time. But if 60% of their costs are driven by labor then that can be a concern, because labor costs are only going up over time. So really, you want to find out how they break down their cost structure to better understand how affordable it's going to be, not only today but on your roadmap moving forward so you can make projections.
+* When will you see a return on your investment from using this PIU?
+* What are the different types of costs? There could be a cost to author transactions so that you can issue verifiable credentials, but there could also costs associated with having a more active role within the PIU.
+* How active of a role do you need to have within the PIU? For example, do you need to be a steward or do you need to be a transaction endorser? What is the return on investment for each one of those decisions?
+* Who are the other parties within the PIU? Are they producers, consumers, pro-consumers?
+* How do you see your role within the network? Is there a missing gap you can fill?
+* Is it a completely open network, or is there any governance around who gets onboarded? Can Google join the PIU tomorrow and take it over completely?
+* What are the checks and boundaries against increase of price? If  Google starts driving tons of credentials and tons of transactions that increase the bandwidth significantly on the network, your blockchain node may not cost one thousand dollars per month, it may cost a hundred thousand.
+
+
+
+### Lesson 2: Determine legal affordability
+
+* What are the tax structures of where the PIU is located?
+* Does compliance to data privacy laws come as a guarantee with the PIU? Guaranteeing compliance to laws such as GDPR or CCPA are great for me but if the PIU doesn’t guarantee these, then I may need to take other measures to ensure that I'm not liable for anything.
+* Does my organization need to be structured in a certain way to comply to legal requirements foor joining the PIU?
+
+
+### Lesson 3: Determine technology affordability
+
+* How much does it cost for me to run the PIU technology?
+* Regarding the technology supply chain - where is the PIU getting things from? Who are their outsourcing partners, if any? What decisions have they made in terms of the technology labor?
+
+
+### Lesson 4: Determine social affordability
+
+* What is the cost associated with all the PIU social initiatives? Do you have any commitments?
+* How much has the public identity utility invested themselves in items like accessibility and inclusivity; and where does that leave you as an organization? If the PIU hasn’t provided accessibility today, tomorrow will the provision of accessibility increase your costs substantially?
+* How much will inclusivity cost you? For example, if somebody doesn't have a smartphone and your technology doesn't support it, will you have to support this tomorrow; that's a cost that is not known today. Another example, if you're servicing areas that for one reason or another don't have internet connection, does the PIU help deal with this?
+* Because the technology is early, and because it's going to keep evolving and more PIUs will become available, there's going to be a need for migrations at a certain point. How do you make sure that if you start using a PIU today for your business processes and you're using credentials that you'll be able to use those tomorrow?
+
+
+### Lesson 5: Determine governance affordability
+
+* How are you ensuring that your cost doesn't go up beyond inflation in the coming years?
+* Is the PIU setting thresholds and policies to protect you?
+
+
+
+## To-Do Items
+1. Submit for PR