Re: [soa-rm-ra] Policy_Contract_Business diagram - some questions

[michael.poulin@uk.fid-intl.com]

Hi Danny,

probably, it will be unfair to ask now something like 'What is the "perspective of a stakeholder"? I hope I will find it in the context.

I've got the major thing from your answer, I guess, - proposition is a measurable expression. The policy and the contract may have relationships with many propositions as it's shown on the diagram. OK.

However, the diagram does not state: 
1) if it possible to have NO propositions related to the policy or to the contract; 
2) if a proposition may/should be shared between the policy and the contract. 
With such uncertainty, it is very difficult to say that the standard states a relationship between a contract and a policy.

Even with the reference to the Business Via Services world and an assumption that a Policy has/has-not a difference from a Contract, it impossible to conclude anything about Policy-Contract relationship (if they are identical, what the purpose of having two names?; if it is the same thing but viewed differently by different stakeholders, it is even more confusing to me to have it as different entities in the diagram).

If, finally, one assumes that Policy and Contract are different entities (in the Business Via Services world or wherever else), the explanation of the Proposition DOES NOT answer my question: how the standard/digram defines the relationship between a Policy and a Contract.

At the end, I would like to say that I have tried to apply the Policy&Contract Section to creation of a Service Contract definition for my services in my company. Unfortunately, I have found that w/o concrete definition of the P&C relationships, the whole Section appears impractical to me and my team. As a result, we have defined an XML Schema for the Service Contract Template, which includes Policies themselves  and/or references to the Policies. After a few brainstorms aimed to compromise such relationship, we have accepted our Service Contract Template as the working model. That is, our model does not match the diagram I am discussing in this thread.

Could you, please, point to the thing we've missed or to the problem we've had with regard to this case?

- Michael 


 
Subject: Re: [soa-rm-ra] Policy_Contract_Business diagram - some questions

    * From: Danny Thornton <danny_thornton2@yahoo.com>
    * To: michael.poulin@uk.fid-intl.com, soa-rm-ra@lists.oasis-open.org
    * Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 13:44:41 -0700 (PDT)

Hi Micheal,

A proposition is an expression whose truth can be
measured.  The following is the definition from the
Business via Services section.

Proposition:  A proposition is an expression, normally
in a language that has a well-defined written form,
that expresses some property of the world from the
perspective of a stakeholder. The truth of the
proposition may be measured  using a decision
procedure  by examining the world and checking that
the proposition and the world are consistent with each
other.

The beginning diagram in the policies and contracts
model is a tie to the Business via Services section. 
The differentiating meaning between Policy and
Contract is in the Business Via Services world.  The
IT mechanisms measure the propositions of both
policies and contracts.

Danny