ETSI TS 101 903 "XML Advanced Electronic Signature (XAdES)" in its current version is the result of a long process that started back in May 2000.
At that time eSTIO (Electronic Signature Test-suit for Inter-Operability), an European Commission funded project within the framework of "Information Society Initiative for Standardisation" (ISIS), was developing tools that could be used by electronic signature commercial products for carrying interoperability tests. Also at that time, the SEC ESI Technical Committee from ETSI was developing what would become ETSI TS 101 733: "CMS Advanced Electronic Signatures" (nowadays know as CAdES) and the joint W3C/IETF XML Signature Working Group was working in what would become the W3C Recommendation XML Signature Syntax and Processing.
esTIO developed tools supporting a basic set of interoperability tests for ETSI TS 101 733 electronic signatures. The consortium identified a lack of similar specification in XML field. The Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC) , one of the members of the eSTIO consortium produced at that time a study document ("Definition of new XML types for Signature Properties equivalent to the types defined in ASN.1 for digital signatures") proposing a draft xml schema defining a XML syntax for the electronic signatures properties defined in TS 101 733.
This work was presented at the SEC ESI TC from ETSI. This committee decided to support the production of a Technical Report (TR), which would be used to take a definitive decision.
ETSI SEC ESI TC made a call for comments on the aforementioned TR. In the light of the received comments and after the study of the TR, the ETSI SEC ESI TC decided to produce a Technical Specification defining a format for XML Advanced Electronic Signatures . For that ETSI funded the STF (Specialist Task Force) 178 formed by staff of Bull, Security and Standards, Institute for Applied Information Processing and Communication (IAIK) and UPC. In February 2002 TS 101 903 "XML Advanced Electronic Signature (XAdES)" v1.1.1 was published.
After its publication ETSI started promotion of XAdES. ESI TC contacted World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and decided to produce a W3C Note for XAdES v1.1.1 and submit it to theW3C in 2003. That W3C Note was formally acknowledged by the W3C and this document can now be found here.
Also in 2003 ETSI, through its Plugtest service, prepared and hosted the first XAdES Interoperability Plugtest Event, an event where a number of XAdES implementers tested the interoperability of their XAdES products, had discussion on different aspects of the specification and rose recommendations for future standardization activities.
Between 2003 and 2004 ESI TC reviewed XAdES specifications and, based in feedback got from implementers, XAdES v1.2.2 was published in April 2004.
A second face to face XAdES Interoperability Plugtest Event was organized by ETSI in May 2004. Based on the feedback coming from this event and from other sources, ESI TC produced XAdES v1.3.2 that currently is the latest published version of XAdES.
The first Remote XAdES Plugtest Event was organized by ETSI, from 3rd to 18th of March 2008 . Around 20 entities participated in such an event. Again, the issues raised during the Plugtest where submitted to ESI TC, which is now producing disposition of comments, which will be implemented in the next version of XAdES.