The IT council of the federal administration gave the go-ahead for the fifth SAGA version and decided on three modules of the document. SAGA is a compilation of references of specifications and methods for software systems of public administration. When choosing information technologies SAGA’s version 5 (or higher) will become obligatory for the federal administration.
With this decision the IT council aims for appropriate quality requirements and transparent criteria in the choice of technologies in all IT projects.
By the nationwide use of SAGA interoperability, economic feasibility, and security of the federal IT landscape shall be strengthened. SAGA 5 focuses on communication interfaces, data exchange formats, and IT security.
The federal IT control has released three SAGA modules at www.cio.bund.de/saga. The editor of SAGA 5 is the Federal Commissioner for Information Technology (BfIT) Cornelia Rogall-Grothe. On behalf of the federal IT control ]init[‘s SAGA team has created the modules “Basics”, “Conformity”, and “Technical Specifications” in extensive coordination with representatives of administration, economy, and science.
]init[ has been part of the SAGA team for more than eight years and has been involved significantly in the pre-versions SAGA 1.1 up to SAGA 4.0.

press release, 7th november 2011