Book excerpt: Abstract: Interoperability between components of automatic test systems (ATS) is promoted and facilitated. The standard facilitates the capture of maintenance action information (MAI) associated with the removal, repair, and replacement of a particular system component (e.g., unit(s) under test) in order to maintain/support that particular operational system. The MAI schema becomes a class of information that can be used within the SIMICA family of standards. The exchange format utilizes the XML formats. Keywords: automated test system (ATS), eXtensible markup language (XML), maintenance action information (MAI), Software Interface for Maintenance Information Collection and Analysis (SIMICA), XML schema.