Information technology - Business Operational View - Part 10: IT-enabled coded domains as semantic components in business transactions

1.1 Statement of Scope 

This part of ISO/IEC 15944 serves as a methodology and tool for the use of widely used standards, specifications, authority files, etc., of a "codes representing X" nature in business transactions involving the making of (legally-binding) commitments, based on common business practices, and doing so in an ITenabled manner. The key characteristics of coded domains include: 

a) they are rule-based; 
b) they have a Source Authority; 
c) they are used in support of commitment exchange among Persons engaged in Open-edi business transactions through their IT systems; 
d) they support requirements for unambiguousness in the semantics of the electronic data interchange (EDI) among autonomous parties while also supporting localization and multilingual human interface equivalency (HIE) requirements; and, 
e) they are IT-enabled as per the rules, criteria and specifications of this part of ISO/IEC 15944. 

This part of ISO/IEC 15944 supports all three strategic directions for standards development of ISO/IEC JTC1: namely "portability", "interoperability", and "cultural adaptability". 

A key objective of this part of ISO/IEC 15944 is to ensure that existing standards of a "codes representing X" nature can be used in electronic business transactions among parties engaged in Open-edi. Open-edi pertains to flows of information using information bundles which cause pre-defined (or pre-definable) changes in the states of the IT systems of the parties to such electronic data interchanges. Parties using Open-edi make the commitment that they will adhere to the predefined rules associated with the registered associated scenario attributes, roles and information bundles (including registered semantic components). The semantics here are identified and referenced via an identifier. With such ID codes can be associated multiple human interface equivalents in many forms and languages. Use of this part of ISO/IEC 15944 therefore facilitates semantic interoperability requirements in support of "cultural adaptability". 

Another purpose of this part of ISO/IEC 15944 is to specify the key elements of an IT-enabled coded domain, whose membership is determined by a Source Authority, for use in support of electronic data interchange (EDI) among autonomous parties engaged in commitment exchange. The approach taken is that of the separation of the IT interface requirements of semantic interoperability from their (multiple) human interface linguistic equivalents. This will also ensure that the level of certainty and explicitness required in the completeness of the semantics of the recorded information interchange is appropriate to the goal of the business transaction, i.e. the unambiguous requirement. 

1.2 Exclusions 
Excluded from the scope of this part of ISO/IEC 15944 is that of the development of the scope, attributes, content values (as HIEs) of coded domains, etc., as required elements for other coded domain Registration Authorities (RAs), i.e. other than those developed by ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 32 itself as the Source Authority (SA). 

However, the application of this part of ISO/IEC 15944 as a methodology and tool to turn an existing set of "codes representing X..." into an IT-enabled coded domain, conforming to this part of ISO/IEC 15944, is not excluded. 

1.3 Aspects currently not yet addressed 
The first edition of this part of ISO/IEC 15944 focuses on the essential, most basic aspects, i.e. primitive aspects. It is anticipated that some or all of these requirements will be addressed in future editions of this part of ISO/IEC 15944, or in companion standards or technical reports (including possible new parts of the multipart ISO/IEC 15944 standard). The development of new parts of ISO/IEC 15944 on Open-edi descriptive techniques is expected to provide a more detailed specification about IT-enabled presentations of coded domains. 

1.3.1 Addressing "Quadrant B, C & D" in Figure 5 
It is noted in Clause 0.7, and illustrated in Figure 5 above, that the focus of the first edition of this part of ISO/IEC 15944 focuses "Quadrant A". It may well be aspects of "coded domains" which will be identified in the use of the first edition which need to be addressed but are of a "Quadrant B, C or D" in nature. 

1.3.2 Use of coded domains in support of the "Process" component in the Business transaction model 
The business transaction model (See Clause 0.3 above) has three fundamental components, i.e. "Person", "data" and "process". This first edition does not yet address the application of coded domains for identifying or referencing "processes" (e.g. as a set of pre-defined steps in a process each with their own ID code in a coded domain). 

1.3.3 Use of coded domains with respect to Persons and in particular "individuals" and associated privacy protection requirements 
ISO/IEC 15944-1 contains an Annex C (informative) titled "Unambiguous identification of entities in (electronic) business transactions". In addition, it also provides, in an Annex D (informative), examples of coded domains for the unambiguous identification of Persons in business transaction. 

1.3.4 Use of coded domains in support of "public policy" requirements and in particular individual accessibility 
Public policy requirements as a type of external constraints are introduced in 6.3 of ISO/IEC 15944-5. While this part of ISO/IEC 15944 is structured to support individual accessibility requirements, including those of the UN Convention of rights of persons with disabilities, this first edition addresses the more primitive aspects only. 

1.3.5 Detailed levels of rules pertaining to change management aspects of coded domains 
6.6.4 in ISO/IEC 15944-5 and 11.3 and 11.4 in ISO/IEC 15944-8 already address key aspects pertaining to change management such as state changes, records retention, and data deletion. This part of ISO/IEC 15944 incorporates these relevant aspects at the primitive level only. 

1.3.6 Differentiation of categories and levels of Source Authorities (SA) for coded domains 
Some coded domains are more recognized and more widely used than others. Some coded domains are maintained as international and/or national standards. Some are intended for use in one industry sector only (but are often used outside that sector as well). "Sets of codes representing X" are also maintained by international bodies or owe their origin and use to the implementation of an international treaty, convention, protocol, etc. These have their own categories and levels. 

1.4 IT-systems environment neutrality 
This part of ISO/IEC 15944 does not assume nor endorse any specific system environment, database management system, database design paradigm, system development methodology, data definition language, command language, system interface, user interface, syntax, computing platform, or any technology required for implementation, i.e. it is information technology neutral. At the same time, this part of ISO/IEC 15944 maximizes an IT-enabled approach to its implementation and maximizes semantic interoperability.