Review of Section 3.1.4 Policies and Contracts

[Danny Thornton <danny_thornton2@yahoo.com>]

Editors' Draft 2010-12-21 (Main Changes tracked).pdf

Line 913
A commitment is a type of constraint, redundant to add "commitment and/or".

Line 914
"and stakeholder alone" is redundant.

Line 917
A constraint may be measured and enforced by SOA mechanisms, the qualification of "but will usually be performed by a stakeholder in the ecosystem (public authority, legal system, etc.)" is too constraining.

Line 919 – 920
Commitment is closely related to obligation.  A policy represents an obligation but does not represent a commitment.  We are governed by many policies we are not committed to.  A contract is a representation of a commitment.  Commitment is a tighter qualification of obligation and does not fit the general level of section 3.1.4.  

Line 923
Figure 7 response to comment - Constraint was qualified with Policy because Constraint by itself was too general.  Policy Constraint does not inherit from Contract and Policy, UML diamond symbols are aggregations and triangles are inheritance.  

Line 924
The original definition of Policy is accurate.  
“A policy is an assertion promulgated by a stakeholder in such a way as to enforce  the assertion’s proposition.”
In the modified definition, there is a temporal dependency between “commits” and then “if possible and necessary” .  While this may be true it is intuitively contradictory. 
“enforce through stated constraints” would just be “enforce stated constraints.”  
Promulgated or “to put into effect as a regulation” captures the actions of the stakeholder more accurately.

Line 931
The “object of the policy” can be the stakeholder.  “or of the behavior of the stakeholders of the policy” is a qualified redundancy.

Lines 932 – 948
Agree with removal of Policy Topic and Policy Object but add back the following definitions:

Policy Constraint
A policy constraint is a measurable proposition that characterizes the constraint that the policy is about.

Contract
A contract represents an agreement by two or more participants to constrain their behavior and/or state.

Prefer the shorter definition for Contract.

Line 948
The use of “imply a desire to see constraints respected” opens another can of worms.  Would remove the sentence “Both policies and contracts imply …” 

Line 951 to 956
Agree with these additions.

Line 962
Agree with addition but would put a period after “action” and drop “whereas”.

Line 970
“based on the terms of the contract” is redundant.

Lines 971 – 977
Agree with changes.


Danny