The Terms Working Group submitted 48 terms to the Standards Committee for review. Each term included a broad definition along with a model proof. The Working Group received feedback on 8 high priority terms from the SC and is now working to understand how these 8 terms fit within the framework proposed by the Framework Working Group.

The top eight terms under consideration are:
• Digital Enterprise
• Digital Thread
• Native Model
• Model-Based Definition
• Model
• Model-Based Enterprise
• Product Lifecycle
• Product Lifecycle Management

Want to know more?¶

Learn about the approach the Working Group took to develop terms and definitions¶

Guidelines for Terms¶

1. Understand the concept.
2. Assign a name to the concept; that is your term .
3. Develop the definition.
4. Test scope.
   • Must want to control term.
   • Must be able to control term.
   • Must accept the burden (mortgage).
5. Iterate as needed.
   • You might find you need to evolve to a different term and/or concept, or even break the concept into multiple concepts.
   • Revisit scope determination.

Rules for Good Definitions¶

1. Identify what type of thing it is (super-type).
2. Be minimally sufficient. (normalized definition)
   • Focus on the essential nature of the concept.
   • Ensure the term is bounded and differentiated.
3. Use other terms in lexicon.
   • Express in terms of semantic relationships to other terms.
   • Do not use term in definition.
   • Establish preferred term among equivalent terms.
4. Use simple syntax.
5. Don’t editorialize.
6. Choose the right scope/context.
   • Focus of universality within chosen scope, leaving instances for usage.
   • Qualify only as needed to differentiate (e.g., purpose, outcome).
7. Prove using structured methods (semantic relationships).

Proof of a Good Term Definitions¶

• Run the Guidelines for Good Terms.
• Run the Rules for Good Definitions.
• Model the definition graphically.
• Model the definition using structured text.
• Negotiate equivalence between graphical model, textual model, and definition.
• Ensure the definition provide appropriate, user-friendly indexing.