Issue 17542: Inadequate, Overlapping and Disorganized Specs for Sets and Collections of Concepts, Meanings, and Representations (sbvr-rtf) Source: Business Rule Solutions, LLC (Mr. Ron Ross, rross(at)brsolutions.com) Nature: Uncategorized Issue Severity: Summary: Inadequate, Overlapping and Disorganized Specifications for Sets and Collections of Concepts, Meanings, and Representations Problem: Assumptions Two assumptions are basic to the eight points of this problem statement: • SBVR must provide a business vocabulary for business people and business analysts to talk clearly and precisely about terminological dictionaries and rulebooks and what they represent. • The various aspects of this Issue must be addressed holistically. They can be resolved only by unifying, normalizing and completing all related specifications. (Thus, the need for a new unifying Issue.) Problems 1. A known problem in SBVR is that the current version does not make clear what the fundamental unit of interoperability in SBVR is. No matter how that issue is resolved the unit should: • Be identifiable from a business point of view. • Not always have to be the full, non-redundant set of concepts, meanings, or representations. The existing content of Clause 11 does not currently provide an adequate term for the second of these. This Issue proposes “collection” for that purpose. Note: The term “collection” in the following discussion is never actually used on its own. Rather, it always appears with qualification – e.g., ‘collection of representations’. 2. Another known problem in SBVR centers on the use of the word “container” in e-mails and discussion. (Use of the signifier “container” per se is not part of this Issue.) It is unclear (to some) whether “container” refers to the ‘thing that contains’, to ‘what is contained’, or to both. The term is easily misused and misinterpreted. Also there are many variations of what is (or could be) contained (e.g., sets, collections, etc.). SBVR needs a precise, non-overlapping vocabulary for these things from a business point of view. 3. Another known problem in SBVR is that the existing content of Clause 11.2.2.3 “communication content” (a.k.a. “document content”) is not adequate for all purposes to which it might be put. SBVR needs a richer (but still minimal) set of concepts to address this area. 4. Certain existing terms in the existing content of Clause 11 (e.g., ‘terminological dictionary’ and ‘rulebook’) conflate ‘completeness and non-redundancy’ (i.e., being a set) with ‘primary purpose’ or ‘essence’. This conflation needs to be eliminated. In the real world for example, a rulebook does not have to be complete (e.g., it may contain only what is appropriate for a given audience), and it does not have to be non-redundant. It can contain the same rule statements in different sections, the intent being to provide the greatest clarity when being used by members of some speech community. 5. SBVR currently provides no means to talk about a collection of representations that is complete with respect to one or more specific concepts, but not complete with respect to all concepts in the body of shared meanings. Example: A listing of all baseball rules that address the concepts “strike” and “ball” only. 6. With respect to interoperability there is a minimum set of pragmatic business specifications (such as completeness, effective date, shelf life, mutability, etc.) needed for things communicated. SBVR does not currently support such specifications. Note: There is no intent or need to get into document management or rule management. The dividing line is this: SBVR does not get into organizational issues (e.g., author, sponsor, reviewer, etc.), workflow issues (e.g., status, pre-approval distribution, sign-off, impact assessment, etc.), motivation (rationale, goals, risks), etc. SBVR must, however, provide minimum viability criteria for any sets or collections communicated. Otherwise the communicated content is not really useful and trustworthy on the receiving end. Consequently the purpose of interoperability is defeated. 7. Certain kinds of collections relevant to inter-operability are missing from the current content of Clause 11 – most notably ‘record’ (not IT ‘records’). Proper incorporation of this and other kinds of collections is needed. 8. Issue 16103, which addresses “speech community representation”, needs to be worked into a holistic solution. Resolution: Revised Text: Actions taken: August 7, 2012: received issue Discussion: End of Annotations:===== hoo-Newman-Id: 856370.46418.bm@omp1016.access.mail.mud.yahoo.com DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=yahoo.com; s=s1024; t=1344374141; bh=yk2UjOMgTG8h31x9XBhn/ZZXDZNX7irb8DNzIjHqs6U=; h=Message-ID:X-Yahoo-Newman-Property:X-YMail-OSG:X-Yahoo-SMTP:Received:X-Mailer:Date:To:From:Subject:In-Reply-To:References:Mime-Version:Content-Type; b=d6DC0jC+i09jmIzXqRwwIiMzAL+HjNZJwUG6VleubZsOom3hUlnBRcZ5s66+jgdAy/Y3L9dOeCbjqBrZnf+LkpGjX2yeEmKKUyU9VlsYgquiI/TFYA4ZOPAH13f2TCEJzpRgR1vQqNIjxSJR2iNQxiho4een9/OZVc0SlVhGnc4= X-Yahoo-Newman-Property: ymail-3 X-YMail-OSG: 0nyRaAEVM1kqO5Hn2cXJRREV3.UjCx4dCOzUdO_pRkPQuyC .v57ycv3JoJjijx0c92HqNKsUUqBm0r1RN.KNHwX04oEhA74jjGRCy8G9otK Hai3SJeE1cRNwcEKXRiN_zIIZ2n2zL2IgPQiKTFjtcfrUuXhJCEbGw4EqDSF WnrFAXNyDsDKcLxaFV.anZmYDofpdqFSb7rQNuZM47NQRuUddrg1fH6U.zts 4Sz6jFbt2EqgFt2WCXrrpRpkTjXL0VAg2gbVhNacxy2tu5vuFFOeFYstvuNg zPQjtZpK50No3rlu9utuCHs0AAkJip42BAjUomBrpmNw62S2sKVtwg4Rm4T7 EOTR_CzRBnD3agkbX22kn2ttaeqfrznH1wH.p4kVw7pI5qRHRlj1k8TXgwpa xm0PgX1OVJfMqnzFIQCTm06Co8uLwLEFoWsE1.DrRc9vjbF1gQyq.zrVXyVZ q4ilK5wHmy0F7sdNuk0reTUsgtzS_ajRn6wX5hvcjpFzmjU2usftjfLTciI3 5PVkArOz2qpFmqmR2wZXyaZVHuvi5DF2NvVmU.fFfSuHcffGwJeX_aT.zfG2 .zPUzulyV4mLR9T3FO67tr1MAdIb4evnjMVmWh6Igs5r9H49FPARMk6zYpHn fbgsgYgVeihE5caTiD4POA7XYBCEx7BgXDBmJGz0qw8Ncg44YqvM_2mKhwqU oJnY- X-Yahoo-SMTP: MhfrpU2swBDLgYiYhNQDHBu0cE4o.vu2We1FRN9o X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 7.1.0.9 Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2012 16:15:38 -0500 To: Juergen Boldt From: "Ronald G. Ross" Subject: Re: issue 17542 -- SBVR RTF issue 4:19PM on Tuesdays. Got it. At 03:55 PM 8/7/2012, Juergen Boldt wrote: At 04:34 PM 8/7/2012, you wrote: Wow! Aiming for Olympic gold on issue turn-around?? LOL...you just hit me at the right moment At 03:24 PM 8/7/2012, you wrote: Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2012 15:19:17 -0500 To: Juergen Boldt From: "Ronald G. Ross" Subject: New SBVR 'Container' Issue Cc: sbvr-rtf@omg.org, Donald Chapin Juergen, Please register the attached new SBVR issue. Thanks, Ron Blog || http://www.RonRoss.info/blog/ LinkedIn || http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ronald-ross/1/3b/346 Twitter || https://twitter.com/Ronald_G_Ross Homepage || http://www.RonRoss.info Juergen Boldt Director, Member Services 140 Kendrick Street, Building A Suite 300 Needham, MA 02494 USA Tel: 781 444 0404 x 132 fax: 781 444 0320 www.omg.org Blog || http://www.RonRoss.info/blog/ LinkedIn || http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ronald-ross/1/3b/346 Twitter || https://twitter.com/Ronald_G_Ross Homepage || http://www.RonRoss.info Juergen Boldt Director, Member Services 140 Kendrick Street, Building A Suite 300 Needham, MA 02494 USA Tel: 781 444 0404 x 132 fax: 781 444 0320 www.omg.org Blog || http://www.RonRoss.info/blog/ LinkedIn || http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ronald-ross/1/3b/346 Twitter || https://twitter.com/Ronald_G_Ross Homepage || http://www.RonRoss.info