ISO/IEC 14662:2004

Information technology - Open-edi reference model

ISO/IEC 14662:2004 specifies the framework for coordinating the integration of existing International Standards and the development of future International Standards for the inter-working of Open-edi Parties via Open-edi and provides a reference for those International Standards. As such, it serves to guide the work necessary to accomplish Open-edi by providing the context to be used by developers of International Standards to ensure the coherence and integration of related standardized modelling and descriptive techniques, services, service interfaces and protocols. This International Standard describes, through two perspectives of business transactions, significant aspects relevant to the interoperability of information technology systems used by Open-edi Parties engaging in Open-edi. The perspectives are: business aspects such as business information, business conventions, agreements and rules among Open-edi Parties; and information technology aspects which are necessary in the Open-edi systems to support the execution of business transactions. This International Standard is not an implementation specification nor is it a basis for appraising the conformance of implementations.

Technologies de l'information — Modèle de référence EDI-ouvert

General Information

• Status: Withdrawn
• Publication Date: 17-May-2004
• Withdrawal Date: 17-May-2004
• ICS: 35.240.60 - IT applications in transport
• Technical Committee: ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 32 - Data management and interchange
• Drafting Committee: ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 32/WG 1 - eBusiness
• Current Stage: 9599 - Withdrawal of International Standard
• Start Date: 02-Feb-2010
• Completion Date: 30-Oct-2025

Relations

• Revised: ISO/IEC 14662:2010 - Information technology - Open-edi reference model
• Effective Date: 26-Sep-2009
• Revises: ISO/IEC 14662:1997 - Information technology - Open-edi reference model
• Effective Date: 15-Apr-2008

Standards Content (Sample)

INTERNATIONAL ISO/IEC
STANDARD 14662
Second edition
2004-05-15
Information technology — Open-edi
reference model
Technologies de l'information — Modèle de référence EDI-ouvert

Reference number
©
ISO/IEC 2004
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©  ISO/IEC 2004
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ii © ISO/IEC 2004 – All rights reserved

Contents Page
Foreword. iv
Introduction . iv
1 Scope. 1
2 Normative references. 1
3 Technical normative elements. 1
3.1 Definitions. 1
3.2 Symbols and abbreviations . 3
4 The Open-edi Reference Model . 4
4.1 Business operational view. 6
4.2 Functional Service View. 9
4.3 Open-edi Reference Model related standards.12
4.4 Use of BOV and FSV related standards. 12
5 Conformance Statement. 13
Annex A (informative) Standardization areas and types of standardization activities for Open-edi. 14
Annex B (informative) Requirements for Open-edi standards. 18
Annex C (informative) Example formal description techniques for modelling role behaviour . 22
Annex D (informative) An approach for detailing concepts of the FSV. 28
Annex E (informative) English-French equivalents. 33
Index . 34

© ISO/IEC 2004 – All rights reserved iii

Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical
Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are members of
ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical committees
established by the respective organization to deal with particular fields of technical activity. ISO and IEC
technical committees collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other international organizations, governmental
and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also take part in the work. In the field of information
technology, ISO and IEC have established a joint technical committee, ISO/IEC JTC 1.
International Standards are drafted in accordance with the rules given in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
The main task of technical committees is to prepare International Standards. Draft International Standards
adopted by the technical committees are circulated to the member bodies for voting. Publication as an
International Standard requires approval by at least 75 % of the member bodies casting a vote.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent
rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
ISO/IEC 14662 was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC JTC 1, Information technology, Subcommittee
SC 32, Data management and interchange.
This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition (ISO/IEC 14662:1997), which has been technically
revised.
iv © ISO/IEC 2004 – All rights reserved

Introduction
The economic advantages of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) are widely recognized. However, the cost of
setting up an EDI relationship has been very high due to the need for a detailed bilateral business and
technical agreement between the involved business partners. The initial high cost of establishing such an
agreement does not justify short term partnerships. It has also been found that implementations involving the
management of a large number of partners and their associated agreements are not productive. Consequently,
most EDI implementations have been successful only:
 in long term partnerships;
 between a limited number of partners.
Open-edi lowers these barriers by introducing standard business scenarios and the necessary services to
support them. Once a business scenario is agreed upon, and the implementations conform to the Open-edi
standards, there is no need for prior agreement among trading partners, other than the decision to engage in
the Open-edi transaction in compliance with the business scenario. Since Open-edi takes a generic approach,
it enables organizations to establish short term relationships quickly and cost effectively. Business scenarios
and the necessary supporting services will be available to all who wish to use them, thus providing the
necessary means for implementing Open-edi.
The field of application of Open-edi is the electronic processing of business transactions among autonomous
multiple organizations, authorities or individuals within and across sectors ( e.g., public/private, industrial,
geographic). It includes business transactions which involve multiple data types such as numbers, characters,
images and sound.
The Open-edi Reference Model has been developed primarily in order to provide standards required for the
inter-working of organizations, through interconnected information technology systems. This model is
independent of specific:
 information technology implementations;
 business content or conventions;
 business activities;
 parties participating in business activities.
The Open-edi Reference Model identifies the required standards for Open-edi and provides a reference for
those standards by defining the basic concepts used to develop them. It serves as the basis for co-ordination
of work between the different agencies involved in EDI standardization. It provides the framework for this
co-ordination and for the integration of existing and emerging standards and the development of future
standards. The Open-edi Reference Model places existing electronic business standards in perspective.
Some of Open-edi standardization areas and types of standardization activities are presented in Annex A and
some of the requirements for Open-edi standards in Annex B.
The Open-edi Reference Model uses two views to describe the relevant aspects of business transactions:
 the Business Operational View (BOV);
 the Functional Service View (FSV).
© ISO/IEC 2004 – All rights reserved v

The BOV, addresses the aspects of
a) the semantics of business data in business transactions and associated data interchanges;
b) the rules for business transactions, including:
 operational conventions;
 agreements;
 mutual obligations,
which apply to the business needs of Open-edi.
The FSV addresses the supporting services meeting the mechanistic needs of Open-edi. It focuses on the
Information Technology aspects of:
a) functional capabilities;
b) service interfaces;
c) protocols.
Such functional capabilities, services interfaces and protocols include:
 capability of initiating, operating and tracking the progress of Open-edi transactions;
 user application interface;
 transfer infrastructure interface;
 security mechanism handling;
 protocols for inter working of information technology systems of different organizations;
 translation mechanisms.
0.1 The co-ordination needs of the Open-edi Reference Model
Standards required for Open-edi cover a large spectrum of areas including but not limited to:
 business aspects;
 support for national and international law and regulation;
 information technology generic standards, such as information modelling standards;
 software engineering standards;
 data modelling standards;
 information technology standards specific to one sector;
 interconnection standards, such as message handling, file transfer, transaction processing, network
management;
 security standards.
vi © ISO/IEC 2004 – All rights reserved

Development of standards for electronic business is already taking place in several standardization bodies
and industry groups.
The co-ordination of standards development is essential in order to:
 avoid duplication of effort;
 ensure interoperability of standard conforming solutions;
 ensure technical consistency of standards;
 identify and remedy deficiencies and voids in standards;
 identify and eliminate redundancies and overlaps in standards.
Annex A describes how the Open-edi Reference Model can serve as the basis for co-ordination of work of the
different agencies involved in standardization of electronic business.
0.2 The technical requirements of the Open-edi Reference Model
Each view of the Open-edi Reference Model corresponds to a class of necessary standards. One class of
standards, associated with the BOV in the Open-edi Reference Model, addresses the business issues of
Open-edi. Another class of standards, associated with the FSV in the Open-edi Reference Model addresses
Information Technology (IT) issues. Each class of standards requires a specific type of expertise needed for
their development. By separating the business user aspects of Open-edi from the IT aspects, the Open-edi
Reference Model and its associated standards provide flexibility in accommodating changes in IT and user
demands without impacting the Open-edi standards related to the business user aspects of Open-edi.
Methods of implementing the standards which comply with this framework are not constrained by the model.
Therefore interworking among Open-edi systems will be guaranteed while preserving flexibility in
implementation.
The implementations of Open-edi will require the co-operation among different types of experts, primarily
business users aided by information analysts and IT specialists including telecommunications experts.
In order to support an Open-edi activity, models must be developed which consider aspects of both the
external and internal behaviour of Open-edi Parties. The boundary between the external and internal
behaviour will vary among Open-edi Parties depending on how the implementation has been carried out. The
models to be developed must consequently take into consideration those aspects which are necessary to
ensure interoperability. Only the external behaviour of Open-edi Parties affects the interoperability of Open-edi
systems. The description of the internal behaviour of Open-edi systems is provided in the model only to
support the definition and exposition of the interoperability aspects, and to offer insight to the definitions of the
external interfaces required.
0.3 Use of “Person”, “person”, and “party” in the context of business transactions and
commitment exchange
When the ISO/IEC 14662 Open-edi Reference Model standard was first developed, the “Internet” and “WWW”
were in their embryonic stage and their impact on private and public sector organizations was not fully
understood. Consequently, in the First Edition (1997), the Business Operational View (BOV) was initially
defined as:
 “a perspective of business transactions limited to those aspects regarding the making of business
decisions and commitments among organizations which are needed for the description of a business
transaction”.
The 1984 ISO/IEC 6523 standard definition of “organization” was used in in the first edition of ISO/IEC 14662.
This was changed in 1998 and ISO/IEC 6523 became a two-part standard. The fact that today Open-edi
through the Internet and WWW also involves “individuals” has been taken into account in the revision of this
standard. Further, ISO/IEC 14662 did not define “commitment”, nor the discrete properties and behaviors an
© ISO/IEC 2004 – All rights reserved vii

entity must have to be capable of making a “commitment” as well as bridging legal and IT perspectives in the
dematerialized world of the Internet. During the development of ISO/IEC 15994-1 the term “commitment” was
defined.
At the same time it was recognized that in order to be able to make a commitment, the term Open-edi Party
was not specific enough to satisfy scenario specifications when the legal aspects of commitment were
considered. In many instances commitments were noted as being actually made between and among
machines (automata or computer programs) acting under the direction of those legally capable of making
commitment, rather than the individuals in their own capacities. It was also recognized that in some
jurisdictions commitment could be made by ‘artificial’ persons such as corporate bodies. To address these
extended requirements an additional term: Person, was created. The construct of Person has been defined in
such a way that it is capable of having the potential legal and regulatory constraints applied to it.
The reader should understand that:
 the use of the Person with a capital “P” represents Person as a defined term, i.e., as the entity within an
Open-edi Party that carries the legal responsibility for making commitment(s);
 “individual”, “organization” and “public administration” represent the three common subtypes of “Person”.
Definitions for these terms and their use are found in ISO/IEC 15944-1.
The words “person(s)” and/or “party(ies)” are used in their generic contexts in this standard. A “party to a
business transaction” has the properties and behaviours of a “Person”. {See further ISO/IEC 15944-1,
Clause 6, and in particular 6.1.3 and 6.2}.
0.4 Electronic business and Open-edi: areas of activity and participation
The following tables illustrate the general context within which electronic business activities take place.
Table 1 presents the areas of activity; Table 2, the types of bodies which should fulfil those areas of activity;
Table 3 identifies typical actors at the time of this International Standard. It is expected that working
documents will be created identifying all relevant sectorial actors.
The application of the Open-edi reference model specified in this International Standard enables the evolution
of the organization of the activities detailed in Table 1. That evolution is found in Annex A, and in particular in
Tables A.1 and A.2.
Table headings are explained in Annex A. Tables 1, 2 and 3 have, in addition, a new dimension, below that of
Environment, which is characterized as "Formal Recognition". This is a specific stage between Environment,
which is understood to be the existence of all that there is in the development of standard frameworks, and
Activity Models, which are understood to be business modelling methods and techniques identified by the
frameworks.
viii © ISO/IEC 2004 – All rights reserved

Table 1 — Areas of activity
Conformance
Meta- Produce Take into use
Standards Guidance and
standards product by
certification
A B C D E F
1. Environment Languages Laws, Business Courts, Contracts
Practices Guidelines Tribunals
2. Formal
Frameworks Reference BOV & FSV Testing Bodies Toolsets
recognition Models
3. BOV activity Modelling Business Conventions Test Applications
models Languages Scenarios Definitions
4. BOV data Modelling Message Usage Test Actual data
models
Languages Standards Guidelines Definitions
5. FSV Tools, Inter- Profiles Inter- Software,
technology Techniques operability operability Hardware
Standards Standards
Table 2 — Types of bodies that should be involved in performing the different tasks for
each cell
Conformance
Meta- Produce Take into use
Standards Guidance and
standards product by
certification
A B C D E F
1. Environment
LEGAL and REGULATORY FRAMEWORK
BODIES
2. Formal STANDARDIZATION
recognition
TESTING
IMPLEMEN- IMPLEMEN-
and
TORS TORS
3. BOV activity PROCESS
CERTIFICA-
models and and
TION
USERS USERS
BODIES
4. BOV data
BODIES
models
5. FSV
technology
© ISO/IEC 2004 – All rights reserved ix

Table 3 — Current participants
Conformance
Produce
Meta-standards Standards Guidance and Used by
product
certification
Environment Cultural International Lawyers Courts Commerce
Adaptability National and
Bilateral government
Formal ISO/IEC ISO, ISO/IEC, ITU ISO/IEC JTC1 ISO/IEC Standards
recognition JTC 1/SC 32 SC 32 bodies
National and
regional standards UN/ECE Suppliers
bodies ASTM Users
UN/ECE
CEN
IETF
ASTM
OASIS
BOV activity ISO/IEC ISO, IEC and ITU WfMC Non-standard Users
models JTC 1/SC 7 and sectorial bodies products
SC 32
CEN
ISO/TC 184
National standards
bodies
WfMC
BOV data ISO/IEC Trade bodies User as previous Suppliers UN/CEFACT Suppliers
models JTC 1/SC 32 groups column plus Users
sectorial
ISO/TC 211 WTO
groups
WCO
ICAO
IMO
SWIFT
ebXML
UN/ECE
FSV ISO/IEC JTC 1 ISO/IEC various ISO/IEC Manufacturers Many Suppliers
technology ISO TC211 TCs and JTC 1/SC 32 Suppliers NIST Users
IETF JTC1/SCs JTC1/SC 27 Open Group
TC 215
CEN
CEN/TC 251
IETF
IETF
W3C
W3C
x © ISO/IEC 2004 – All rights reserved

INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO/IEC 14662:2004(E)

Information technology — Open-edi reference model
1 Scope
This International Standard specifies the framework for co-ordinating the integration of existing standards and
the development of future standards for the inter-working of Open-edi Parties via Open-edi and provides a
reference for those standards. As such it serves to guide the standards work necessary to accomplish Open-
edi by providing the context to be used by developers of standards to ensure the coherence and integration of
related standardized modelling and descriptive techniques, services, service interfaces, and protocols.
This International Standard describes, through two perspectives of business transactions, significant aspects
relevant to the interoperability of information technology systems used by Open-edi Parties engaging in Open-
edi. The perspectives are:
a) business aspects such as business information, business conventions, agreements and rules among
Open-edi Parties;
b) information technology aspects which are necessary in the Open-edi systems to support the execution of
business transactions.
This International Standard is not an implementation specification nor is it a basis for appraising the
conformance of implementations.
2 Normative references
The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application of this document. For dated
references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced
document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO 6523-1:1998, Information technology — Structure for the identification of organizations and organization
parts — Part 1: Identification of organization identification schemes
ISO 6523-2:1998, Information technology — Structure for the identification of organizations and organization
parts — Part 2: Registration of organization identification schemes
ISOIEC 15944-1:2002, Information technology — Business agreement semantic descriptive techniques —
Part 1: Operational aspects of Open-edi for implementation
3 Technical normative elements
3.1 Definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following definitions apply:
3.1.1
Application Program Interface (API)
a boundary across which application software uses facilities of programming languages to invoke services
© ISO/IEC 2004 – All rights reserved 1

3.1.2
business
a series of processes, each having a clearly understood purpose, involving more than one party, realized
through the exchange of information and directed towards some mutually agreed upon goal, extending over a
period of time
3.1.3
Business Operational View (BOV)
a perspective of business transactions limited to those aspects regarding the making of business decisions
and commitments among Persons, which are needed for the description of a business transaction
3.1.4
business transaction
a predefined set of activities and/or processes of parties which is initiated by a party to accomplish an
explicitly shared business goal and terminated upon recognition of one of the agreed conclusions by all the
involved parties even though some of the recognition may be implicit
3.1.5
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
the automated exchange of any predefined and structured data for business purposes among information
systems of two or more parties
NOTE This definition includes all categories of electronic business transactions.
3.1.6
Formal Description Technique (FDT)
a specification method based on a description language using rigorous and unambiguous rules both with
respect to developing expressions in the language (formal syntax) and interpreting the meaning of these
expressions (formal semantics)
3.1.7
Functional Service View (FSV)
a perspective of business transactions limited to those information technology interoperability aspects of IT
Systems needed to support the execution of Open-edi transactions
3.1.8
Information Technology System (IT System)
a set of one or more computers, associated software, peripherals, terminals, human operations, physical
processes, information transfer means, that form an autonomous whole, capable of performing information
processing and/or information transfer
3.1.9
Open-edi
electronic data interchange among multiple autonomous Persons to accomplish an explicit shared business
goal according to Open-edi standards
3.1.10
Open-edi Standard
a standard that complies with the Open-edi Reference Model
3.1.11
Open-edi Party (OeP)
an organization that participates in Open-edi
3.1.12
Open-edi scenario
a formal specification of a class of business transaction having the same business goal
2 © ISO/IEC 2004 – All rights reserved

3.1.13
Open-edi transaction
a business transaction that is in compliance with an Open-edi scenario
3.1.14
Person
an entity, i.e. a natural or legal person, recognized by law as having legal rights and duties, able to make
commitment(s), assume and fulfil resulting obligation(s), and able to be held accountable for its action(s)
NOTE 1 Synonyms for "legal person" include "artificial person", "body corporate", etc., depending on the terminology
used in competent jurisdictions.
NOTE 2 Person is capitalized to indicate that it is being utilized as formally defined in the International Standard and to
differentiate it from its day-to-day use.
NOTE 3 Minimum and common external constraints applicable to a business transaction often require one to
differentiate among three common subtypes of Person, namely “individual”, “organization”, and “public administration”.
3.2 Symbols and abbreviations
API Application Program Interface
BIM Business and Information Modelling
BOV Business Operational View
DMA Decision Making Application
EDI Electronic Data Interchange
EDIFACT EDI For Administration, Commerce and Transport
EWOS European Workshop for Open Systems
FDT Formal Description Technique
FSV Functional Service View
IB Information Bundle
IPD Information Processing Domain
IT Information Technology
OeCI Open-edi Control Information
OeDT Open-edi Descriptive Technique
OeP Open-edi Party
OeSE Open-edi Support Entity
OeUD Open-edi User Data
OSI Open System Interconnection
SC Semantic Component (in the context of Open-edi scenarios)
SC Sub-Committee (in the context of ISO or IEC)
SGML Standard Generalized Mark-up Language
TC Technical Committee
TDID Trade Data Interchange Directory
TI Transfer Infrastructure
UN/ECE United Nations / Economic Commission for Europe
WG Working Group
© ISO/IEC 2004 – All rights reserved 3

4 The Open-edi Reference Model
The Open-edi Reference Model provides a reference framework for the identification, development, and co-
ordination of Open-edi standards. This framework addresses two perspectives of business transactions. One,
the BOV, captures the business users aspects, the other, the FSV, captures the information technology
aspects. A class of standards is associated with each view. They are respectively called the BOV related
standards and the FSV related standards. Figure 1 sets out the relationship between the model and these
views.
B
Open-edi Reference Model
U
S
Business Operational View
I
Comply with
N
BOV RELATED
Business aspects
E
Covered by
STANDARDS
of
S
business transactions
S
Viewed as
T
Inter-related
R
A
View
Functional Service
N
S
Information technology
Comply with
A
FSV RELATED
aspects of
C
Covered by
STANDARDS
Business transactions
T
I
O
N
S
Figure 1 — Open-edi environment
These perspectives are defined as follows:

 Business Operational View (BOV): a perspective of business transactions limited to those aspects
regarding the making of business decisions and commitments among Persons, which are needed for
the description of a business transaction;
 Functional Service View (FSV): a perspective of business transactions limited to those information
technology interoperability aspects of IT Systems needed to support the execution of Open-edi
transactions.
The BOV related standards are tools and rules by which users, who understand the operating aspects of a
business domain, may create scenarios. Registration authorities will reference the BOV related standards
when considering scenarios for registration.
4 © ISO/IEC 2004 – All rights reserved

If those Open-edi scenarios are standardized they are called standardized Open-edi scenarios and are not
"BOV related standards".
The FSV related standards are used by the information technology experts. The information technology
experts are those within an organization who use this technology to design and/or build IT systems which
support the business needs. These experts produce products and services conforming to FSV related
standards (Open-edi systems) which can potentially support the execution of Open-edi transactions.
As shown in Figure 2, the effective inter-relationship between these two classes of standards is a critical factor
of the Open-edi reference model. The FSV related standards shall take into account the BOV related
standards and vice versa. Open-edi scenarios, built using BOV related standards, formulate requirements
which are demands placed on the IT product and services conforming to FSV related standards executing the
corresponding Open-edi transaction. These demands include:
 identification of functional capabilities necessary to support Open-edi transactions;
 the quality of service required from the functional capabilities for these Open-edi transactions.
Formal specification(s) of the functional components needed to support Open-edi transactions, through IT
Systems, are developed using FSV related standards.
The intention is that, once an Open-edi scenario is agreed upon, if implementations conform to the FSV
related standards, there is no need for prior agreement between the Open-edi Parties, other than the
agreement to engage in the Open-edi transaction in compliance with the Open-edi scenario. The intention is
that the sending, by an Open-edi Party, of information from a scenario, conforming to Open-edi standards,
shall allow the acceptance and processing of that information in the context of that scenario by one or more
Open-edi Parties by reference to the scenario and without the need for agreement. However, the legal
requirements and/or liabilities resulting from the engagement of an organization in any Open-edi transaction
may be conditioned by the competent legal environment(s) or the formation of a legal interchange agreement
between the participating organizations. Open-edi Parties need to observe rule-based behaviour and possess
the ability to make commitments in Open-edi (e.g., business, operational, technical, legal and/or audit
perspectives).
Open-edi
Reference
Model
Used by
Standard
bodies
identify/develop
identify/develop
BOV related take into account
FSV related
standards
standards
Figure 2 — The creation of BOV and FSV standards
© ISO/IEC 2004 – All rights reserved 5

4.1 Business operational view
The BOV addresses the business requirements for inter-working among Open-edi Parties, as well as
demands on supporting IT products and services. These business requirements include business conventions,
agreements and rules among organizations.
4.1.1 BOV related standards
BOV related standards provide the tools for formal business description(s) of the external behaviour of Open-
edi Parties, as seen by other Open-edi Parties, in view of achieving a business goal. As such, the BOV related
standards provide a means for capturing the static and dynamic requirements of business.
The BOV related standards provide a specification of how to model the business and associated requirements
as an Open-edi scenario. This specification includes the modelling standard containing the Open-edi
Description Technique to be used.
Open-edi Description Technique (OeDT): a specification method such as a Formal Description Technique,
another methodology having the characteristics of a Formal Description Technique, or a combination of such
techniques as needed to formally specify BOV concepts, in a computer processable form.
The BOV related standards provide the tools and rules to permit and ensure:
 the specification of an Open-edi scenario;
 the reusability of components of Open-edi scenario;
 the harmonization of components of Open-edi scenario among user communities.
4.1.2 Open-edi scenarios
Different user groups will generate Open-edi scenarios in accordance with the specification given in the BOV
related standards. Open-edi scenarios shall be specified in conformity to the BOV related standards. Business
communities can propose Open-edi scenarios as candidates for standardization and registration into (an)
Open-edi scenario repository (ies). Procedures to be used for introducing new Open-edi scenarios and
updating Open-edi scenarios in one or more repositories are specified in a BOV related standard.
Parties will have a need for both generic and specific scenarios. Generic scenarios set out the overall scenario
structure for a business transaction; however, these are realized through profiles for specific scenarios which
support particular sectorial, legislative and other requirements.
All the specifications included in an Open-edi scenario are made at an abstract level. This is independent of
matters such as data representation, coding, encoding.
The OeDT to be used for these scenarios shall therefore allow for both hierarchical decomposition and a
modular approach.
Therefore, BOV related standards shall provide for the possibility of defining Open-edi scenarios with different
levels of granularity.
Open-edi scenarios include the following components:
 roles;
 information bundle(s);
 scenario attribute(s).
6 © ISO/IEC 2004 – All rights reserved

4.1.2.1 Roles
role: a specification which models an external intended behaviour (as allowed within a scenario) of an Open-
edi Party.
Businesses carry out their activities by performing roles, e.g. buyer, seller. Roles describe external business
interactions with other parties in relation to the goal of the business transaction.
The behaviour of an OeP playing a role is expressed through the OeDT as specified in the BOV related
standards. Example FDTs used to describe the behaviour of a role are shown in Annex C.
A role includes the following characteristics:
 all information relevant to the interoperability, within the BOV perspective, of Open-edi systems. It
provides the means for the Open-edi system to determine the allowable sequence(s) of information
bundles exchanges and the conditions in which a role is allowed to send an information bundle. Such
conditions include, but are not limited to:
 the receipt of an information bundle from another role;
 internal decisions;
 timer expiration related to the goal of the business transaction (for example payment delay);
 exceptional conditions or errors related to the business goal of the business transaction (for
example receipt of damaged goods).
 demands on Open-edi Support Infrastructure which reference the functional capabilities (see
section 4.2.1) and their quality of service satisfying the Open-edi scenario requirements on a role.
The catalogue of predefined demands on Open-edi Support Infrastructure is a BOV related standard.
Security features associated with a role are such an example. The related Open-edi configuration
(see section 4.2.2) satisfies these demands.
 demands on OePs which specify the Open-edi scenario constraints imposed on a role. Such
constraints impose restrictions on how roles may be assumed by OePs. Such constraints include but
are not limited to:
 constraints on the characteristics for the OeP which can play this role;
 constraints imposing a role being played only by a maximum number of OePs;
 constraints imposing a role to be conditional;
 constraints of preconditions before a role can be played;
 constraints on the ability of an OeP to assign all or part of a role to another OeP;
 constraints on different OePs playing a role, i.e. as it moves through the various "acts" or
"scenes" in an Open-edi scenario.
The related Open-edi configuration (see section 4.2.2) satisfies these demands.
 registration and management information pertinent to the reusability of a role such as:
 purpose of the role;
 business goals of the role;
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 business rules controlling the role;
 regulations governing the role.
4.1.2.2 Information bundles
Information Bundle (IB): the formal description of the semantics of the recorded information to be exchanged
by Open-edi Parties playing roles in an Open-edi scenario.
The IB is used to model the semantic aspects of the business information. Information bundles are
constructed using Semantic Components.
Semantic Component (SC): a unit of information unambiguously defined in the context of the business goal
of the business transaction.
A SC may be atomic or composed of other SCs.
SCs are defined by knowledgeable parties such as user groups and proposed for standardization and
registration in one or more repositories. Procedures to be used for defining, introducing and updating SCs are
BOV related standards. Technical procedures for electronic access to one or more repositories are candidates
for standardization.
The information bundle includes the following characteristics:
 all information relevant to the interoperability, within the BOV perspective, of Open-edi systems. It is
composed of SCs and describes their relationships;
 demands on Open-edi Support Infrastructure which reference the functional capabilities (see
section 4.2.1) and their quality of service satisfying the Open-edi scenario requirements on IBs. The
catalogue of predefined demands on Open-edi Support Infrastructure is a BOV related standard.
Such features include but are not limited to:
 confidentiality of the IB;
 integrity of the IB.
 registration and management information pertinent to the reusability of an information bundle such
as:
 name of the IB;
 purpose of the IB;
 business rules controlling the content or concept(s) of the IB;
 regulations governing the content or concept(s) of the IB.
4.1.2.3 Scenario attributes
scenario attribute: the formal specification of information, relevant to an Open-edi scenario as a whole, which
is neither specific to roles nor to information bundles.
Classes of scenario attributes include the following:
 all information relevant to the interoperability, within the BOV perspective, of OePs for example:
 relationships among roles;
8 © ISO/IEC 2004 – All rights reserved

 relationships among SCs of different IBs;
 syntax of these relationships.
 demands on Open-edi Support Infrastructure which reference the functional capabilities (see
section 4.2.1) and their quality of service satisfying the Open-edi scenario requirements. The
catalogue of predefined demands on Open-edi Support Infrastructure is a BOV related standard.
Such features include but are not limited to:
 the quality of service required for the communication services to support the execution of the
business transaction;
 the security features required to support the execution of the Open-edi transaction.
 demands on OePs which specify the Open-edi scenario constraints. Such constraints impose
restrictions on how roles may be assigned to OePs. Such constraints include but are not limited to:
 the constraint imposing that two specific roles be played by different OePs;
 the constraint imposing that two or more roles be played by the same OeP.
The related Open-edi configuration (see section 4.2.2) satisfies these demands.
 registration and management information pertinent to the reusability of an Open-edi scenario such
as:
 name of the Open-edi scenario;
 class(es) of business requirements of Open-edi scenario;
 purpose of Open-edi scenario;
 laws and regulations governing the Open-edi scenario.
4.2 Functional Service View
Within the FSV, the interoperability addresses the interactions between the IT Systems supporting the Open-
edi Parties. Interoperability implies that two or more IT systems, conforming to the standards related to the
FSV, are able to co-operate and support the execution of business transactions that are in compliance with
Open-edi scenarios. FSV related standards address information technology interoperability aspects which are
generic to business transactions.
The FSV identifies and models the generic functional capabilities of IT Systems which are needed to support
the execution of Open-edi transactions. In addition, it provides the basic concepts which will allow the FSV
related standards to accommodate different configurations of organizations and IT systems to provide these
functional capabilities. For example, the FSV related standards will accommodate the need for Open-edi
Parties to delegate a part of the execution of Open-edi transactions to service providers.
4.2.1 Functional concepts and capabilities
Open-edi System: an information technology system which enables an Open-edi Party to participate in Open-
edi transactions.
An Open-edi system may be considered as containing two functions. The first is a Decision Making
Application function. The second is the function of an Open-edi Support Infrastructure needed to support the
carrying out of Open-edi transactions for an OeP.
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Decision Making Application (DMA): the model of that part of an Open-edi system that makes decisions
corresponding to the role(s) that the OeP plays, as well as originating, receiving and managing data values
contained in instantiated information bundles, which is not required to be visible to the other OePs.
The DMA functions are one aspect of the FSV. Decisions made by the DMA are not necessarily business
decisions.
Open-edi Support Infrastructure (OeSI): a model of the set of functional capabilities for Open-edi systems
which, when taken together with the Decision Making Applications, allows OePs to participate in Open-edi
transactions.
The Open-edi support infrastructure applies to all Open-edi transactions and specifies:
a) the services offered to Decision Making Applications;
b) the inter-working of components of the Open-edi support infrastructure.
The set of functional capabilities modelled in the OeSI provides for initiating, operating, and tracking the
progress of Open-edi transactions.
The list of functional capabilities includes:
 handling of DMA requests;
 negotiation of role playing;
 specification of the Open-edi configuration;
 interpreting and processing of a role;
 making available the data values received from information bundles from Open-edi systems;
 capture of the data values provided as a result of behaviour choice;
 provision of security services and auditing services;
 tracking and notification of Open-edi transaction status and progress across applications;
 management of error reporting;
 management of communications.
In addition to the functional capabilities required to execute any business transaction, the set of functional
capabilities of the Open-edi Support Infrastructure shall implement the catalogue of predefined demands on
the Open-edi Support Infrastructure which are specified in a BOV related standard.
Decision Making Application Interface (DMA Interface): the set of requirements that permit a Decision
Making Application to interact with the Open-edi Support Infrastructure.
The purpose of the DMA
...