[Gary Berg-Cross]

Has this group looked at the ISO Reference Model for Open Distributed Processing on Enterrpise Language.  It has some sophistication about complex and basic policy concepts. See
http://www.joaquin.net/ODP/DIS_15414_X.911.pdf
 
This might provide some grounding for the relevant Data Foundations and Terminology work and that of PP.
 
They have Modelling concept definitions 
 
– action; 
– activity; 

– behaviour (of an object); 
– component object [2-5.1]; 
– composite object; 
– composition; 
– configuration (of objects); 
– conformance; 
– conformance point; 
– contract; 
– domain; 
– entity; 
– environment contract; 
– environment (of an object); 
– epoch; 
– establishing behaviour; 
– instantiation (of an template); 
– internal action; 
– invariant; 
– liaison; 
– location in time; 
– name; 
– object; 
– obligation; 
– ODP standards; 
– ODP system; 
– permission; 
– prohibition; 
– proposition; 
– reference point; 
– refinement; 
– role; 
– state (of an object); 
– subsystem [2-6.5]; 
– subtype; 
– system; 
– template; 
– terminating behaviour; 
– type (of an ); 
– viewpoint (on a system). 
 

Here is an example of whta they say bout the specification of a policy
 
A policy identifies the specification of a behaviour, or constraints on a behaviour, that can be changed during the lifetime of the ODP system or that can be changed to tailor a single specification to apply to a range of different ODP systems. 
 
Changes in the policies of a community during its lifetime can occur only if an enterprise specification includes  behaviour that can cause such changes. 
Policies may apply to a community as a whole, to enterprise objects that fulfil roles in that community (regardless of  which role), to roles (i.e. to all actions named by those roles), or to action types. They may also apply to the collective 
behaviour of a set of enterprise objects. 
 
The specification of a policy includes: 
 
– the name of the policy; 
– the rules, expressed as obligations, permissions, prohibitions and authorizations; 
– the elements of the enterprise specification affected by the policy; 
– behaviour for changing the policy. 
The specification of policy may cover the degree to which, and the circumstances in which, there can be delegation to 
one enterprise object by another. 
 
NOTE 1 – A policy is a named placeholder for a piece of behaviour used to parameterise a specification in order to facilitate 
response to later changes in circumstances. The behaviour of systems satisfying the specification can be modified by changing the 
policy value, subject to constraints associated with the policy in the original specification. In these terms, a policy is an aspect of 
the specification that can be changed, and a policy value is the choice in force at any particular instant. Thus one might speak of a 
scheduling policy with a FIFO policy value. 

 

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