Every AdsML project is different, but when viewed from a distance they share many core components. Here are the steps involved in setting up a typical business-to-business AdsML project:

• Knowledge acquisition – Learn your way around the AdsML Framework and what it has to offer
• Project set-up – Form a project involving key trading partners
• Vision and scope – Agree with your trading partners the high level vision for the project and decide which parts of the advertising workflow to automate
• Trading Partner Agreement – Developg the TPA, which will force your project team to make key decisions
• Implementation and deployment – Identify existing AdsML-compliant software or build new software that implements the infrastructure and functionality you need. Implement and test the new systems and workflows, configuring them according to the TPA decisions.

An AdsML project should be thought of primarily as a business rather than a technical undertaking, since its goal is to improve business processes and workflows. The AdsML business process model is organized according to major phases of the advertising life cycle, from early planning to order and invoicing. The AdsML specifications help trading partners to understand and identify at which points in the advertising lifecycle they are able to effectively conduct business with one another by electronic, system-to-system communications

Implement only what you need

While use of the complete AdsML Framework is encouraged, user organizations are free to pick any subset and/or combination of AdsML specifications based on business requirements. Trading partners and their vendors are expected to review the AdsML Framework and decide which parts of it they will implement in order to solve their particular business problems. AdsML provides many tools to support this process.

More information about these steps can be found in The AdsML Quick Start Guide, a document intended to give a high-level understanding of how to plan, manage and execute the business and technical dimensions of an AdsML project, including where else to look in the AdsML Framework to find the resources needed.

The guide is aimed primarily at business, technical and project managers who are planning an AdsML-based e-commerce project. Much more technical details can be found in the actual Specifications.