Information technology - Business Operational View - Part 9: Business transaction traceability framework for commitment exchange

1.1 Statement of scope 

This Part of ISO/IEC 15944 presents a framework consisting of several models, including a reference model, a model of concepts, a content model, an information model, as well as rules, templates and other technical specifications for traceability requirements based on internal or external constraints as applicable to a business transaction. The internal constraints are imposed in Open-edi due to mutual agreements among parties to a business transaction and the external constraints are invoked by the nature of a business transaction due to applicable laws, regulations, policies, etc. of jurisdictional domains which need to be considered in Open-edi business transactions. All requirements in this Part of ISO/IEC 15944 originate from external constraints. However, parties to a business transaction may well by mutual agreement apply external constraints of this nature as internal constraints. 

The focus therefore of this traceability framework standard is on commitment exchange among autonomous parties to a business transaction. 

As such, this statement of scope includes the ability of the traceability framework to 

• specify a group of structured and inter-related concepts pertaining to traceability as a legal or regulatory requirement in the Open-edi context, in addition to concepts that appear in other Parts of ISO/IEC 15944 these concepts having the characteristics of cultural adaptability through the use of multilingual terms and definitions; 
•  provide additional specifications for Open-edi scenarios and scenario components from the perspective of traceability as required by internal or external constraints in business transactions; 
•  provide a more detailed specification for business transactions regarding aspects of traceability, including refined models of Person, Data and Process in support of the ability for Open-edi to incorporate elements or characteristics of traceability in its information bundles (including their semantic components) and business processes; 
• realize specifications and descriptions from the traceability requirements as rules and guidelines, to provide recommendations or guidance on Open-edi practices; and 
•  provide revised primitive Open-edi scenario templates for traceability, integrating the modifications to the template from other existing Parts of ISO/IEC 15944. 

This Part of ISO/IEC 15944 can be used by Open-edi implementers (including business modellers and system designers) and Open-edi standard developers in specifying Open-edi scenarios, developing Open-edi related standards, and implementing Open-edi rules and guidelines for Open-edi activities. 

1.2 Exclusions 

1.2.1 Functional Services View (FSV) 

This Standard focuses on the BOV aspects of a business transaction, especially commitment exchange and does not concern itself with the technical mechanisms needed to achieve the business requirements, i.e., the various Functional Services View (FSV) aspects, including the specification of requirements of an FSV nature which include security techniques and services, communication protocols, etc. This includes any existing standard (or standards development of an FSV nature) that have been ratified by existing ISO, IEC, UN/ECE and/or ITU standards. As such, this Part of ISO/IEC 15944 does not specify any FSV aspects about traceability, which shall be part of the implementation of BOV standards in an IT system. 

1.2.2 Internal behaviour of organizations (and public administration) 

Although an organization, (e.g., an e-Business enterprise) may impose traceability requirements on business models and supporting IT systems, this Part and the other Parts of ISO/IEC 15944 focus on the external behaviour of parties to a business transaction. Therefore, excluded from the scope of this Part of ISO/IEC 15944 is the application of traceability requirements within an organization. 

The Open-edi Reference Model does not specify these internal behaviours of an organization as not germane to business transactions (which focus on external behaviours pertaining to electronic data interchange among the autonomous parties to a business transaction). Therefore, excluded from the scope of this Part of ISO/IEC 15944 are: 
a) internal use and management of recorded information pertaining to an identifiable individual by an organization (or public administration) within an organization; and 
b) implementation of internal information management controls, internal procedural controls or operational controls within an organization or public administration necessary for it to comply with applicable traceability requirements in observance of their lawful or contractual rights, duties and obligations as a legal entity in the jurisdictional domain(s) of which they are part. 

However, the specifications for the external behaviour of an organization in this standard may well be used in the internal issues. But it is not the intent of this Part of ISO/IEC 15944 to specify the internal requirements of an organization. 

1.2.3 Metrological traceability 

In ISO/IEC Guide 99:20077, 2.41, the term traceability is defined as property of a measurement result whereby the result can be related to a reference through a documented unbroken chain of calibrations, each contributing to the measurement uncertainty. In this context, the word traceability is used as a metrological term. The word traceability as used in this Part of ISO/IEC 15944 does not relate to metrology and thus the specification of metrological traceability is not addressed in this Part of ISO/IEC 15944. 

1.3 Aspects not currently addressed 

During the development of this part of the standard, requirements specified by International Air Transport Association (IATA) were identified as an important source of traceability principles. However, due to the lack of resources or the technical input from IATA at the time of this standard, such requirements were not incorporated in the current version of this part of the standard. 

Also, in the case of an individual acting as seller, where both external constraints of privacy protection and traceability apply, requirements on the provision of the personal information of that individual is not specified in this Part of ISO/IEC 15944-9. 

The aspects are expected to be addressed in a future edition of this Part or another (new) Part of ISO/IEC 15944.