Service Providers

Using Carbon

We encourage service teams to utilize the Carbon Design System for visual styles and user experience guidance. By utilizing the Component Library, your development teams can easily implement our ready-made components and elements to create a comprehensive UI.

Carbon Design System's contribution guidelines, can be found here.

Stages

Design approval is required prior to an Experimental, Beta, or GA launch.

Experimental & Pre-Beta

Experimental is the place for early-stage testing of your service. This stage is for getting all of the functionality implemented or trying to see how your offering would work with Bluemix.

Beta approval allows your service to be available in the public catalog. Before your offering can reach the Beta stage it must meet the following pre-beta requirements.

Design Requirements

1. Catalog Service Icon: Make sure your Service Icon meets Bluemix's Catalog service icon guidelines, then submit the files to the Master Icon List for approval.
2. Service Dashboard: Service Dashboards are used for showing information and details of an instance that exists. Use the service dashboard templates in the Carbon Design Kit as a starting point and foundation for your design.
3. Service Configuration Pages: Configuration pages appear when a user has clicked on a category or service from the Bluemix catalog. Use the service configuration templates in the Carbon Design Kit as a starting point and foundation for your design.

When you have met the above requirements, schedule a playback with your design director to go over your work and gain approval.

Beta

Welcome to Beta, where the bulk of the work happens to make your service better than ever.

Design Requirements

1. Net Promoter Score: Bluemix uses Net Promoter Score (NPS) to track user feedback. The NPS question, "How likely are you to recommend this service to a friend or coworker?" will be presented to users in the product on their third use of your service. Users answer on a scale from 0-10, and will have the opportunity to provide additional feedback through a follow-up response. Services should achieve and maintain a minimum NPS of 30% from a minimum of 25 non-IBM users. Use the user feedback to inform design decisions and make appropriate changes.
2. User Testing: User testing is an important part of the Beta process, as it can help you find problems within your design. Refer to the user testing worksheet to help you conduct these tests. You must complete five User Tests while your service is in Beta.
3. Playback: At its core, a Playback is a presentation. Plan to communicate the current state of your work and any plans moving forward.

GA

1. Net Promoter Score: You must maintain an NPS of 30% or your service will be under review. There will be a six month post-GA check-in to look at your score and discuss user feedback.

Resources

Currently all assets and resources are for internal use only.

Service Provider Homepage

Start here to get a comprehensive understanding on how to onboard your service onto our platform.

Bluemix Service Operation Plan (SOP)

The Bluemix Service Operation Plan (SOP) is an RTC work item for Bluemix Services that is the single trusted source of service information. This includes onboarding dates, contacts, and requirements compliance information. Every service must have an SOP entry.

Onboarding Checklist

Learn about how to update your SOP, as well as information on guidelines and approvals needed to onboard a service to the Bluemix Catalog.