=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=None
|storemode=property
|title=Conformance to Standards
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-929/paper12.pdf
|volume=Vol-929
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/semweb/SolankiC12
}}
==Conformance to Standards==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-929/paper12.pdf
Conformance to standards
Monika Solanki ∗ and Craig Chapman
Knowledge Based Engineering Lab
Birmingham City University, UK
{monika.solanki, craig.chapman}@bcu.ac.uk
Abstract. In this paper we present the Standards Enforcer Pattern
(SEP). The remit of SEP is to enable the ontological modelling of pro-
cesses, activities, operations and services that enforce guideline(s) rec-
ommended by a specific standard and need to explicitly indicate their
conformance to it. The pattern allows the inclusion of minimalistic in-
formation regarding the conformance, while retaining the flexibility to
extend the ontological primitives as required. As an exemplifier for the
pattern, we present a use case from the algal biomass domain. We model
the process of algal biomass production that enforces the Minimum De-
scriptive Language (MDL) standard for algal operations.
1 Introduction
Activities, operations, processes and services in most domains of interest are
governed by standards. The objective of a standard is to ensure consistency
in implementations and uniformity in quality by ensuring the repeated and
continuous use of prescribed rules and guidelines. The ISO/IEC Guide 2:1996
1
, definition 3.2 defines a standard as a set of specification that is “established
by consensus and approved by a recognized body that provides for common and
repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results,
aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context”.
In order to provide a generic mechanism for the inclusion of ontological mod-
elling primitives of conformance to standards, independent of the domain of ap-
plication and the context of processes, we propose the content ontology design
pattern Standards Enforcer Pattern (SEP).
2 Standards Enforcer Pattern (SEP)
2.1 Intent
The remit of the SEP content pattern is to represent the relation between stan-
dards and the processes, operations, activities and services that enforce them,
∗
Principal and corresponding author
1
http://www.etsi.org/WebSite/Standards/WhatIsAStandard.aspx
the domains they cater to and the scope of that specific process, operation,
activity, service within the context of the domain.
2.2 Competency Questions:
– Which are the standards enforced by this process?
– Which processes enforce these standards ?
– What is/are the domain level scope(s) of the standard?
– Within the context of the domain what is the scope of the process, activity,
operation and service to which the standard is applicable?
– What are the prescribed guidelines for a standard?
– Which prescribed guideline(s) of a standard does a specific process conform
to?
2.3 Some Conceptual Elements
– Standard: A specification established through domain expert consensus that
prescribes a set of rules and guidelines for a given contextual activity within a
domain. The standard must be described informally or formally in a written
document.
– Guideline: An entity defining a guideline included in a standard. Guidelines
are usually prescribed as clauses in the written document for the standard.
– StandardEnforcingProcess/Operation/Activity: The domain specific en-
tity which enforces one or more guidelines from one or more standard.
– DomainScope: The domain/industry/paradigm for which the standard has
been designed.
– ProcessScope: The activity within a specific domain/industry/paradigm
which is governed by the process, e.g., algae harvesting activity which is part
of the biomass production process in the domain of biofuels, shielded metal
arc welding used in the production of tools in the manufacturing domain.
– enforcesStandard: The relationship between the enforcing process and the
standard.
– enforcedBy: The relationship between the standard and the enforcing pro-
cess. This is an inverse relationship to enforcesStandard.
– hasDomainScope: The relationship linking the standard with the domain to
which it is applicable. A standard can cover multiple domains.
– hasProcessScope: The relationship linking the standard enforcing process
with the scope of the process. A standard enforcing process can include
multiple process scopes.
– hasDescriptionDocument: The relationship linking the standard to the real
world document that informally/formally describes it. The object value for
this property is a pointer (URI) to the document resource representing the
standard.
– hasDescriptionClause: The relationship linking a guideline to the prescrib-
ing clause in the real world document for the standard. The object value for
this property is a pointer (URI) to the clause in the document resource
representing the standard.
2.4 Pattern Representation
The Manchester syntax rendering for the concept Standard are illustrated below:
Class: Standard
EquivalentTo:
(hasDomainScope some DomainScope)
and (prescribesGuideline some Guideline)
and (hasDescriptionDocument min 1 owl:Thing)
SubClassOf:
isEnforcedBy min 0 ProcessEnforcingStandar
Note that in the definition of a standard, we require that it includes the scope
of the domain, guidelines and the description document that informally defines
the standard.
Figure 1 illustrates the graphical representation of SEP 2 3 .
Fig. 1. Graphical Representation of Standards Enforcer Pattern (SEP)
2.5 Consequences
The pattern can be applied to use cases in all those domains where a standard
is enforced to regulate processes. The main advantage of this pattern is that it
provides the capability to link processes, operations, activities and services to
2
The OWL ontology for the pattern is available at http://purl.org/biomass/SEP
3
Graphical representations of the pattern in this paper have been produced using a
trial version of the Maestro edition of TopBraid Composer.
their governing standards in a generic and “compositional” manner. In some sce-
narios it is possible that a process or an operation does not enforce all prescribed
guidelines but enforces atleast some. The pattern accounts for that through the
definition of the process enforcing the standard.
2.6 Example usage: Algal Biomass Domain
As an exemplifier for SEP, we present a use case from the domain of algal biomass
production. Figure 2 depicts the application of SEP to an ontology that models
algal biomass production. The “Minimum Descriptive Language”(MDL) stan-
dard4 proposed by the Algal Biomass Association is enforced by the production
operation. MDL recommends a set of descriptive metrics to uniformly charac-
terise the analysis of large scale algal operations. In this use case, the ontology
defines the concepts and relationships for the operation and incorporates SEP
by enforcing a guideline for measuring Carbon input to the operation.
Fig. 2. Graphical Representation of SEP as applied to the domain of algal
biomass production
3 Summary
SEP provides a mechanism to ontologically declare the conformance of a process
with one or more standards. The pattern is flexible and compositional. It can be
exploited to include few or more guidelines from multiple standards and can be
easily combined with other patterns.
4
http://www.algalbiomass.org/