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BS ISO IEC 19763 โ Metamodel Framework for Interoperability (MFI) Standard Series
Information technology โ Metamodel framework for interoperability (BS ISO/IEC 19763)
๐ BS ISO/IEC 19763 is the British Standards Institution’s adoption of ISO/IEC 19763, “Information technology โ Metamodel framework for interoperability” (MFI). The series provides the basis for semantic-level interoperability between information systems: by defining a family of “metamodels for registration”, it lets organisations, models, ontologies, and services be uniformly described, registered, and retrieved, supporting cross-system model sharing, mapping, and integration. It is maintained by Technical Committee IST/40 (Data management and interchange).
๐ก If data is the enterprise’s asset, then “models about the data” (the metamodels) are the asset catalogue. MFI provides a standardised “registry” for these models, lifting interoperability from point-to-point translation to unified discovery and mapping through a registry.
1. Series Overview and the Position of MFI ๐
MFI addresses the question: “when two systems’ data models (database structures, message models, ontologies) differ, how do we systematically describe their similarities and differences and support transformation?” MFI does not prescribe specific business models; instead, it specifies the metamodels needed to describe the models. An organisation can register the information models, ontologies, process models, and service models it owns; other systems discover these models and their mappings in the registry, achieving traceable interoperability at the semantic level. Part 1 defines the purpose, scope, and framework of MFI and gives conformance requirements โ the umbrella of the whole series.
โ ๏ธ MFI is a “metamodel framework”, not a particular interoperability protocol. It is more like the “operating system of model management”: concrete business models (purchase-order model, electronic-record model) still have to be built per their domain standards, and MFI handles the uniform registration, management, and mapping of their meta-information. Do not mistake “using MFI” for “having ready-made business models”.
2. Series Composition and Key Points ๐ง
| Part | Subject | Key Content | Readability |
|---|---|---|---|
| BS ISO/IEC 19763-1 | Framework | Framework: MFI purpose, scope, conformance, and structure (supersedes 19763-1:2007) | Readable |
| BS ISO/IEC 19763-3 | Metamodel for ontology registration | Ontology registration metamodel (scanned, summarised from public-domain knowledge) | Scanned |
| BS ISO/IEC 19763-5 | Metamodel for process model registration | Process model registration metamodel (scanned, summarised from public-domain knowledge) | Scanned |
| BS ISO/IEC 19763-6 | Metamodel for role and goal model registration | Role and goal model registration metamodel (scanned, summarised from public-domain knowledge) | Scanned |
| BS ISO/IEC 19763-7 | Metamodel for service model registration | Service model registration metamodel (scanned, summarised from public-domain knowledge) | Scanned |
| BS ISO/IEC 19763-8 | Metamodel for model registration (extension) | Extension registration metamodel (scanned, summarised from public-domain knowledge) | Scanned |
| BS ISO/IEC 19763-10 | Core model and basic mapping | Core model and basic mapping | Readable |
| BS ISO/IEC 19763-12 | Metamodel for information model registration | Information model registration metamodel | Readable |
๐จ Scanned-version note: Parts 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8 are derived from scanned originals. The descriptions in this article are written from public-domain knowledge; the official BSI published version takes precedence for the metamodel classes and clauses.
3. Key Technical Requirements: Core Model and Registration Metamodels ๐ฅ
Part 10 (Core model and basic mapping) gives the MFI core model: it defines the basic concepts such as “registered item” and “model registration”, and the basic mapping mechanism between model elements, which expresses the correspondence between an element in one model and an element in another โ the basis for building more complex registration metamodels. Part 12 (Metamodel for information model registration) specifies the metamodel content needed to register information models (such as database schemas, message definitions, and data structures) so that they can be discovered, compared, and mapped.
The remaining registration metamodels (Parts 3, 5, 6, 7, 8) target different kinds of registered objects: ontology registration, business-process-model registration, role-and-goal-model registration, service-model registration, and so on. Together these registration metamodels form the MFI family, supporting complete semantic coverage from “data structures” to “business processes” to “service interfaces”.
โ
The core value of MFI lies in “traceable mapping”: through explicit mappings between registered items, the result of one model mapping can be retained, re-checked, and evolved rather than discarded after a one-off translation. This is especially important for long-lived multi-system integration.
4. Engineering Practice ๐ ๏ธ
- ๐ Model registry: in a data-centre or master-data governance project, an enterprise uses the Part 12 information-model registration metamodel to register each system’s data structures, forming an enterprise-wide data dictionary.
- ๐ง Semantic mapping: when building a data lake, data warehouse, or system migration, the Part 10 core model and basic mapping establish source-target field mappings and retain the mapping metadata for audit and reuse.
- ๐ Ontology and process governance: Parts 3, 5, 6, and 7 are used to register ontologies, processes, role/goal models, and service models, supporting business-to-IT alignment and interoperability assessment (scanned parts summarised from public-domain knowledge).
- ๐ Standards alignment: in environments where multiple industry-standard models coexist, MFI describes their similarities and differences, aiding standard selection and mapping work.
5. Frequently Asked Questions โ
โ Q: What is the relationship between MFI and “data dictionary” / “metadata repository”?
A: MFI provides the standard framework of registration metamodels that can serve as the “blueprint” for building data dictionaries, metadata repositories, and model registries, so that these facilities follow a uniform metamodel structure and are easier to exchange and interoperate across organisations.
A: MFI provides the standard framework of registration metamodels that can serve as the “blueprint” for building data dictionaries, metadata repositories, and model registries, so that these facilities follow a uniform metamodel structure and are easier to exchange and interoperate across organisations.
โ Q: Why are there so many “registration metamodel” parts?
A: Different model types (ontology, process, role/goal, service, information model) have different structures; defining registration metamodels separately expresses the characteristics of each object precisely while staying consistent through the Part 1 framework.
A: Different model types (ontology, process, role/goal, service, information model) have different structures; defining registration metamodels separately expresses the characteristics of each object precisely while staying consistent through the Part 1 framework.
โ Q: What does the “basic mapping” of Part 10 solve?
A: It defines the minimal usable semantics of a mapping โ how one element in a model corresponds to an element in another. Basic mapping is the basis for more complex mappings (many-to-many, conditional) and the starting point of semantic-interoperability traceability.
A: It defines the minimal usable semantics of a mapping โ how one element in a model corresponds to an element in another. Basic mapping is the basis for more complex mappings (many-to-many, conditional) and the starting point of semantic-interoperability traceability.
๐ Q: Can the scanned parts be used for actual modelling?
A: The descriptions of the scanned parts in this article are written from public-domain knowledge and marked “scanned version”. For formal modelling and implementation, follow the metamodels and clauses in the official BSI published version.
A: The descriptions of the scanned parts in this article are written from public-domain knowledge and marked “scanned version”. For formal modelling and implementation, follow the metamodels and clauses in the official BSI published version.