Re: Issues with Libraries for UBL 2.0.

[Tim McGrath <tmcgrath@portcomm.com.au>]

Thank you for your prompt reply.

I think what we will propose is:

1. only one "common" spreadsheet sorted in order of "all contexts", "procurement", then "transportation" ABIEs (based on their business process).
2. provide a reference table as you suggest.

Once we have stablized the "common" spreadsheet (following the UBL Plenary meeting on May 22-25) we may ask if the JPLSC can prepare the reference table.  Is that reasonable?



Yukinori Saito wrote:

Dear Tim McGrath,
I understand your situation.
I understand your thinking that is combined "Common" (like the old reusable)
and have all ABIEs in one place.

The followings are my comments.
1. The size of Reusable spreadsheet
As you know, Reusable V1.0 contains 60 ABIEs. And Reusable spreadsheet has
431 items (ABIE, BBIE, ASBIE). This is quite a big size already.
The Reusable V2.0 will contain 104 ABIEs. I think that this size is too big
to manage. I have no suitable ideas about this issue. Alternative idea is
that the Reusable spreadsheet will be divided to two or three peaces
physically.

2. Additional proposal regarding relationship between business documents and
Reusables.
(1) In case some business experts (UBL users) study UBL business documents,
they read targeted business document at first, then they will search some
ABIEe in Reusables. This job is quite a lot hard job. But this is capable.
(2) However, on the other hand, if some business experts will study
Reusables spreadsheet, the big issue is difficulty at the view point of
these ABIEs referring relations. For example, it is very difficult (almost
impossible) where the ABIE 'Address' is referred from business documents or
the other Reusable ABIEs.
My proposal is please provide us (UBL users) Reusable ABIEs reference table
that explains referring business documents and referring Reusable ABIEs by
each ABIE.
I think that this reference table is a kind of support documents.
The attached document is a sample of  Reusable ABIEs reference table. In
this document, the key item is ABIEs in reusable. The contents are referring
business documents and referring Reusable ABIEs.

Best Regards,
Yukinori Saito
-------------------------------------------
Yukinori Saito
Fuji Electric Information Service Co., Ltd. (FIS)
e-mail: saito-yukinori@fujielectric.co.jp
Tel: +81-3-5435-7333     Fax: +81-3-5435-7513
------------------------------------------- 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tim McGrath" <tmcgrath@portcomm.com.au>
To: "Yukinori Saito" <saito-yukinori@fujielectric.co.jp>
Cc: <PLB@itst.dk>; <swebb@gefeg.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2006 4:55 PM
Subject: Issues with Libraries for UBL 2.0.


The UBL procurement subcommittee has been reviewing your comments from the
UBL 2.0 public review and we would like your opinion on how to resolve the
problem we have with the proposed library structure.

As we have agreed the original idea was to have a Common, Procurement and
Transportation spreadsheet library.  The idea was this would simplify
maintenance and keep the libraries in a manageable size.  We still think
this is a worthy objective but we have a problem with how to decide which
ABIEs go in which library.

If we try to follow the separation rules agreed to by the UBL TC (from
Thomas and your paper) then we get a distribution like:
Common Library = 90
Procurement Library = 8
Transportation Library =  6

This is partly because when we have document types such as Freight Invoice
it uses Procurement and Transportation ABIEs, meaning they go into the
Common Library.  It is also becasue we actually re-use a lot of the ABIEs in
both contexts.

Becasue of this we tried in the UBL 2.0 package to create the distribution
as:
Common Library = 54
Procurement Library = 30
Transportation Library =  20

With this separation based on assumptions about where ABIEs most logically
fit.

While this seems more sensible as a distribution we have had comments from
reviewers that suggest they find it hard to know which library to find
various ABIEs in.  For example, Shipment is in the Transportation Library
but used by  Despatch Line and Ordered Shipment in the Procurement Library.

Basically, we are finding it hard to come up with simple way of organizing
these Libraries that makes sense to everybody.  We are now beginning to
think we may be better using just a combined "Common" (like the old
reusable) and have all ABIEs in one place.  The difference being that now we
have got values of "Procurement" and "Transportation" in the
Context:Business Process column (column "W") anyone could create a view of
the Procurement and Transportation BIEs if they wanted to.

Before we discuss this further with the UBL Technical Committee we wanted
your opinion and suggestions.

Can you think about this and get back to us over the next few days?

  

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-- 
regards
tim mcgrath
phone: +618 93352228  
postal: po box 1289   fremantle    western australia 6160
web: http://www.portcomm.com.au/tmcgrath