This technical description provides an overview of how the same constructs used for generic DEXs may be used to further specialize PLCS to operate within a more constrained Business Context. The context may be a project, an organization or enterprise. One or more Business DEXs may be defined within such a context.

Note: In order to distinguish between the similar terms used for components developed by the OASIS PLCS TC for submission as a standard and business specific components, the components may be prefixed "PLCS" or "Business" respectively. A DEX that is standardized by the OASIS PLCS TC is then referred to as a "PLCS DEX" rather than a "Business DEX".

The PLCS DEXs are defined using standard terminology and support activities defined in the ISO 10303-239 Activity Model. Whilst this provides a definition of a data exchange that satisfies a particular business need, it may still be too generic for defining a contractual data exchange agreement. In particular:

• PLCS DEXs are designed to satisfy a high level business activities and do not necessarily satisfy the precise business processes that require more specific data exchanges;
• PLCS DEXs may not use industry specific terminology. General PLCS terms are used; and
• PLCS DEXs may not include the Reference Data required in a specific industrial domain.

The approach is, therefore, to define one or more Business DEXs within a specific Business Context.

The set of Business DEXs then provide a library of mappings to PLCS components that can be reused.

Business DEX

A Business DEX contains at least one Business Object, which is mapped to a Business Template, which can make use of other Business Templates and PLCS Templates. The relationships between the various parts of a Business DEX and other DEXlib components are illustrated in Figure 1 and described below.

Figure 1 —  Constituents of a Business DEX and relation to OASIS PLCS constructs

A Business DEX is a DEX that has been defined outside the OASIS PLCS TC. It is, generally speaking, more business specific and may extend or specialize a PLCS DEX. A Business DEX is defined and managed within a specific Business Context.

Organizations that wish to exchange data must agree on both the technical aspects of the data exchange (what information and in what format) and the business processes that should be applied (when to exchange data, how to approve it, etc). A Business DEX is a full specification of the technical aspects of a data exchange, and fulfills the technical requirements of an exchange agreement.

A Business DEX might be created because its scope is not considered generic enough to apply across different businesses and therefore not meaningful to become a OASIS PLCS DEX, or because it was developed to only meet a specific business need. When it is made available for public scrutiny and feedback, Business DEXs may be found to be of interest in a broader context. This might lead to such DEXs being generalized and adopted by the OASIS PLCS TC. Developing and publishing a Business DEX can also be used as a first step to initiating a new PLCS DEX, if no suitable PLCS DEXs is available. The fact that the DEXlib development platform is available also for non OASIS PLCS DEXs, facilitates such transitions.

There are no explicit Capabilities for Business DEXs or direct relationships between the Capabilities and the Business Templates.

Business Objects

A Business Object describes a specific business requirement. It may be documented using EXPRESS, UML, or some other modelling paradigm. The component concepts of a Business Object are represented using the EXPRESS datatypes specified by one or more Business Templates that are equivalent to the Business Object.

Business Templates

A Business Template is a Template that represents a Business Object or part of a Business Object.

A Business Template is very similar to a PLCS Template, in that it defines PLCS entities and their relations, and uses PLCS Templates as needed to simplify this. The only difference is that a Business Template may use both PLCS Templates and Business Templates whereas a PLCS Template can only use other PLCS Templates.

Business Reference Data Library

A Business RDL is a Reference Data Library that specializes the OASIS RDL further in order to achieve semantic precision in a specific business context. A Business RDL is a Reference Data Library that specializes the OASIS RDL further in order to achieve semantic precision in a specific Business Context.

Each Business DEX must define a Business RDL with Reference Data Classes that fulfil the requirements of the Business Objects. Classes from OASIS RDL may, of course, be used unmodified, but it is unlikely that these classes will suffice for all purposes.

The DEXlib development environment has a specific section for Business DEXs. This is not part of the official OASIS PLCS standardization work, but is provided for the mutual benefit of projects and organizations working with ISO 10303-239 PLCS. It is used to publish work that has been developed in parallel to the OASIS PLCS TC work, and is typically either project specific (with a much more narrow context than PLCS), or work that is intended to become part of OASIS PLCS TC but is not yet not generalized enough.

Business Contexts

The business specific information in DEXlib is organized into "Business Contexts" - a context for the information. The Context may be a project, an organization, or an enterprise. One or more Business DEXs may be defined within the same Context.

A "business context" is a context in which a specialized vocabulary is employed. This may be an individual organization, a larger business community, or a particular project (or initiative). A number of Business DEXs and Templates are identified within a given Business Context and each DEX is defined using the specialized vocabulary of its Business Context.

Structure and contents of Business DEXs

Each Business DEX Contains:

• A text description/definition of the business DEX:
  • The role of the Business DEX;
  • The Business Context in which the Business DEX is used;
  • The distinguishing characteristics of the Business DEX (considering the generic PLCS DEXs);
  • The distinguishing characteristics of the Business DEX (considering other Business DEXs in the same Business Context; and
  • A reference to the relevant Reference Data for the Business DEX.
• A list of the Business Templates that the Business DEX comprises.