Working draft · version 0.1 · working draft
An open, interoperable specification for measuring DEX.
OpenDEX provides a common way to define and exchange Digital Employee Experience (DEX) measurements. It covers terminology, metric definitions and a machine-readable data schema. The specification is in development.
Scope
Scope and purpose of the specification.
OpenDEX is not a DEX product, vendor ranking or consulting framework. It does not replace existing DEX platforms. It defines how measurements can be described and exchanged.
A standard that only one vendor controls isn't a standard anyone should trust.
From the original OpenDEX proposal
Positioning
DEX operating models and measurement specifications address different needs. OpenDEX focuses on the data: how measurements are defined, represented and exchanged.
An operating model describes how a DEX practice works. OpenDEX describes the measurements it uses.
Architecture
The specification covers four areas.
Taxonomy. What things count as DEX in the first place — a shared vocabulary across device, application, network, collaboration, security and sentiment.
Metric definitions. What each measurement precisely means: unit, start event, end event, exclusions, aggregation, sampling.
Data schema. How a measurement is represented on the wire, so it moves between systems without a hand-written translation layer.
{
"metric": "device.login_time",
"value": 14.2,
"unit": "seconds",
"timestamp": "2026-09-01T09:14:02Z",
"device": "anon-device-id",
"os": "Windows 11"
}
Interoperability. Can two unrelated DEX platforms produce data a third system can consume without custom mapping? That's the real test.
Taxonomy v0.1
The initial taxonomy is expected to cover approximately 30–50 metrics across six categories. The list will be reviewed and revised as the specification develops.
OpenDEX does not currently define a universal score. The specification describes individual measurements; it does not prescribe how organizations should combine or weight them.
Charter v0.1
Year one
The first-year plan is organized into four stages. Dates and deliverables are targets and may change as the work progresses.
Publish the OpenDEX Charter v0.1 and an initial governance draft. Stand up the specification repository. Draft the first taxonomy. Begin a biweekly Working Note documenting open questions in public.
Recruit five to ten Founding Contributors. Open four working groups. Run the first OpenDEX Roundtable and publish what came out of it.
Ship a small reference collector. Run an interoperability challenge across independent and synthetic data sources. Launch a small benchmark pilot and publish distributions, never company-level scores.
Publish OpenDEX v0.9 with taxonomy, schema, reference implementation and governance in place. Form a Technical Council with no single-company majority. Release OpenDEX v1.0.
Target: OpenDEX 1.0, by the end of August 2027.
Get involved
Participation is open to practitioners, engineers, researchers and others with relevant experience. The initial focus is on substantive review and contributions to the specification.
Practitioners can help review metric definitions, contribute use cases, take part in interviews and working groups, and identify gaps in the draft. Roles and responsibilities will be defined through the project's governance process.
SIG 1Measurement — what should be measured, and why.
SIG 2Schema — how a measurement gets represented.
SIG 3Benchmarking — how organizations can be compared safely.
SIG 4Practitioner Experience — what DEX means operationally, day to day.
Working Notes will document open questions, proposals and decisions as the specification develops.
Governance & IP
OpenDEX is intended to be developed as a shared, community-governed specification. Participation does not confer equity or ownership of the initiative.
Individuals and organizations may contribute under the project's published policies.
Contributions do not provide shares, financial returns or governance rights by payment.
The intended model is neutral stewardship and community-led decision-making.
The specification is intended to be a shared resource. Its governance will be documented openly, with participation available across organizations and interest groups. The project will publish its formal governance, contribution and licensing policies as they are adopted.
Contributors may participate in their own capacity or on behalf of an organization, provided they have the necessary authority to submit their work. Contributions do not transfer ownership of an employer's intellectual property. Contributors are responsible for confirming that they are permitted to make any required rights grants.
The project is reviewing established approaches to open specification governance and contribution management. These include the Community Specification framework and the Developer Certificate of Origin. No framework or legal instrument should be treated as adopted until the project's own policies are published.
These references are provided for background. OpenDEX's formal governance and intellectual property policies remain under development. This page is not legal advice.
Source
The repository will be the public source for specification drafts, examples and project governance documents.
The repository is planned to contain the taxonomy, schema, examples, reference implementation and governance documents. Publication details will be added when the repository is available.
specification/ · examples/ · reference-implementation/ · governance/ · CONTRIBUTING.md · GOVERNANCE.md
Repository link to be added.
Join
We welcome practitioners, engineers, researchers and organizations interested in developing an open DEX measurement specification.
To express interest, share your area of experience and how you would like to contribute. You may also suggest a metric, use case or issue for the working groups to consider.