RE: Questions/Comments ebXML-BP Metamodel - seattlemodel.doc

[Bob Haugen <linkage@interaccess.com>]

Hi Brian,

I only feel competent to address some of your questions - those
that relate to the economic classes.  The definitions of
these classes in the seattlemodel document have been corrected,
so I will drop the corrected definition alongside a response
to the question in the hopes that the combination will
explain better.

Brian Hayes wrote:
>-pg2-
>Is an Economic Resource Type equivalent to a commodity (classification
>system used in part catalogs)?

Economic Resource Type is an abstract class that could have
subclasses of various levels from very broad to very specific.
Commodity could certainly be one of them.

>Economic Resource Type.  How is this different from commodity (e.g. office
>supplies or paper)?

Commodity could be one subclass of Economic Resource Type.

<definition>
Economic Resource Type.
An Economic Resource Type is the abstract classification or definition of an Economic Resource.  For example, in an ERP system, ItemMaster or ProductMaster would represent the Economic Resource Type that abstractly defines an Inventory Item or Product.
Economic Resource Types could have recursive relationships, so that for example broad classifications like "product" could group smaller classifications like "product family", which could have as members specific "product masters" with SKU numbers.
Economic Resource Types are not just categories; they may be complex objects that define complex information for Economic Resources such as bills of material, prices, etc.
</definition>

>Would it be worth modeling a PartnerRelationship? Or is this already
>covered?  For example, a buyer and supplier have a trading relationship that
>is defined by one or more Contracts.  You could also say that a Contract
>identifies which BusinessProcess instances are allowed between the partners.

Contracts could define Partner relationships, and/or relationships
could be added to the model at some level that represent the
fact that two Parties have a PartnerRelationship outside of any
particular Contract.  (See also corrected definition of Contract
below.)

>What are the role names on the relationship between Partner Role and
>Economic Event?

"from" and "to" would be the simplest names - see the definition.

<definition>
Economic Event.
An Economic Event is the transfer of control of an Economic Resource 
from one party to another party.
</definition>

>Contract - The description of Contract mentions a sales order as an example.
>Does a supplier-buyer pricing contract fit just as well into this model?

Yes. Many different Contract Types can be formed into Contracts.
Supplier-buyer pricing would be a good example.  (Maybe the
definition below needs some changes to explicitly accommodate it.)

<definition>
Contract.
A contract is a mutual commitment that some future actual economic 
events will be executed. For instance a sales order can be seen as a 
contract representing the commitment to ship and the reciprocal commitment 
to pay.
Contracts can have recursive relationships with other contracts, for example 
yearly contracts with monthly releases and weekly or daily shipping schedules.
Contracts are fulfilled by the execution of the committed Economic Events.
</definition>

>Service Level Agreement.
>	[this might be associated with a Business Process, Business
>Transaction, Business Activity, or Step]
>	SLAs are standard practice for making explicit agreements between a
>provider of a service and a customer, or collection of customers. These
>agreements typically include statements about the reliability and
>availability of services, their performance, and security.
>	The SLA describes when services would be made available, what the
>time sensitive characteristics of the services would be (e.g. response
>time), what document guarantees are provided specific to the document
>choreography, and how documents will be kept secure.

Would the SLA be a kind of Contract, defined by a kind of
Contract Type?

>SLA Penalty Clause.
>	[this would be associated with Service Level Agreement]
>	For some SLA attributes, it may be appropriate to have a penalty
>clause.  <I have not completely thought this one out.  One possible use
>case: I may choose not to participate in a Business Process where I thought
>the SLA penalty was to cost prohibitive.

Interesting - I can't find a place for that one in the current metamodel.
Can anybody else?  You may have introduced a new concept...

>Operates relationship.
>	[association between Partner and Business Service]
>	It could be said that a Partner operates a Business Service.  Note
>that eCo states "Businesses provide and use Services."

Here are some ideas that may relate, although they may not
satisfy your requirement:

Economic Resources and Economic Resource Types include
services as well as products and money etc.  So to the extent
that you are concerned with the service as something that is
bought, delivered and paid for, it is covered.  However, if you
are concerned with a service as a computer service in the
context of the technical aspects of Collaborations, I think
there is currently some ambiguity in the model as to how
those concepts relate.  

There is a comment in the revised seattlemodel document:
"(Note: in order to tie this into the search for a product or a service, 
the model needs to allow parties or partners to offer economic 
resource types.)"
This might cover a Partner providing a Service, but it is just
a note right now, not yet part of the model.

Let me know if I missed your meaning anywhere,
and thanks for the ideas,
Bob Haugen