Standards Development

Scope

This technical specification provides a conceptual framework to achieve the compatibility between existing and future JTC1 SC7 standards, plus some external software and systems engineering standards (such as those from OMG or The Open Group) by using a family of interrelated ontologies

Purpose

Compatibility between standards is important because standards often refer to each other and are often used in combination, such as lifecycle process together with quality management. To successfully combine standards and adopt them jointly, they must be based on a common and harmonious set of base conceptualisations. This will facilitate improved interoperability by groups or teams adopting different standards.

This project is necessary because of the following reasons:

• Standards are still being developed in “stovepipes”, references between them are limited to selected definitions at best, and combining standards for joint adoption is still a complex endeavour.

• The integrity of existing standards should be respected, while, at the same time, allowing standards developers and users to comprehend them in a wider context.

• Standards should be expressed as formal ontologies in addition to the usual human-oriented document, and these formal ontologies should be related to each other via a common top ontology from which they derive.

• Having standards expressed in a formal manner as well as the usual human-oriented documents will help towards the eventual development of machine-readable and smart standards.

The purpose of this proposal is to develop a technical report that will work as guidance for the development and adaptation of SC7 standards. New standards developed in accordance with this guidance will be compatible amongst them and with existing ones. Existing standards that are adapted in accordance with this guidance will be also compatible.

The target audience of the outputs of this proposal is the SC7 community and, in particular, developers of SC7 standards. Standards development is mainly a human activity, and the study, evaluation, adoption and comprehension of standards require that the proposed outputs are clearly understandable by the SC7 community. Subcommittees other than SC7, as well as external bodies such as OMG or The Open Group, may also want to consider the proposed approach.