SDMN 1.0b2 FTF Avatar
  1. OMG Issue

SDMN — Unclear semantics of DataState class

  • Key: SDMN-3
  • Status: open  
  • Source: Cognitive Medical Systems ( Thomas Beale)
  • Summary:

    Class description:
    DataItems can optionally reference a DataState element, which is the state of the data contained in the DataItem.
    The definition of these DataStates, e.g., possible values and any specific semantic are out of scope of this
    specification. Therefore, SDMN adopters can use the DataState element and the SDMN extensibility capabilities to
    define their DataStates.

    It is not clear what kind of 'states' are intended here. Is the intention that users of SDMN invent their own local lifecycle models for certain kinds of data? Since an SDMN DataItem can be literally anything, from a single Quantity to an entire document, such lifecycles could widely vary, and it is not clear that they would even apply to many kinds of DataItem.

    Proposed change:

    Suggest the description of DataItem.dataStateRef be improved, possibly with some examples.

    If the intention really is to support lifecycle states (e.g. of a document, from draft to approved, or similar) then a more comprehensive facility including a state machine or at least a set of possible states (perhaps in some DataStateType class or vocabulary) would seem to be better, since it is likely to lead to more interoperable SDMN instances.

  • Reported: SDMN 1.0a1 — Thu, 21 Apr 2022 13:38 GMT
  • Updated: Mon, 25 Mar 2024 15:50 GMT