OSLC Vision topic 202
authors: <Jim Amsden> topic started: 2016/03/08 status: <WiP>
Backlog items: nnn
OSLC domains define the vocabulary terms for some specific subject area or domain of interest. The current OSLC v2.0 domain specifications are defined at open-services.net and include:
- Requirements Management
- Change Management
- Configuration Management
- Quality Management
- Architecture Management
- Asset Management
- Performance Monitoring
- Reconciliation
These specifications are in various life-cycle states, and not all have been finalized as OSLC v2.0 specifications.
OSLC domain specifications are useful because they provide a formal definition of a common, shared vocabulary for a domain that meets some community need. Domain specifications are developed by working groups or OASIS Technical Committees which provide a mechanism for collaboration in order to establish the scope and common vocabulary terms in the domain.
However, domains have a few drawbacks. It can take a significant amount of time and resources to define a domain. There can be a lot of disagreement on what terms should be included and how they should be named. There may be existing methods, tools, artifacts and work products in the domain that become incompatible with the emerging standards, resulting in additional work to migrate to the standards. Domains can become closed, limiting extension or integration with other domains without causing instability and incompatibilities. As a result, even standard domains are subject to evolution that may introduce incompatibilities.
But perhaps the most significant issue is that each domain attempts to establish a scope and range of applicability. This is often artificial and represents the interests of a specific group. But when the domain is used in practice, it is often necessary to have very fine-grained integration with other domains. Creation of domain specifications are intended to foster consistency, interoperability, information interchange and enable integration across related domains. But the development of specific domain specifications can result in the creation of silos of information and supporting methods and tools that can created artificial partitions between related domains.
