MDE interface vs. implementation terminology

["Scott Came" <scott@justiceintegration.com>]

At the face-to-face on Saturday, Shane and I took away an action item to "tighten up" our terminology around the term Major Design Element (MDE).  There has been some confusion as to whether this represents a set of features that an implementer must provide, or whether it's the implementation itself.

When I've used this term (which, truth be told, Shane introduced to the TC last fall), I've always intended it to be an interface definition or specification, not an implementation.  It is possible for an implementer to provide implementations of several MDEs in one physical endpoint or service.  For instance, someone could build a court case management system that had the Filing Review and Court Record MDEs in one physical application.

This issue arose when we were discussing splitting the Query MDE into more fine-grained pieces (which I agree we should do.)

The question then becomes, what do we call an implementation of one or more MDEs?

How about MDE interface and MDE implementation?  Shane?

Also, Shane, if I've missed some key aspect of the issue in my description above, please elaborate.

Note that the ECF 3.0 specification will have very little if anything to say about MDE implementations.  We're all about the interfaces.  No?

Thanks.

--Scott