Introduction

This capability describes how a task specification is instantiated. A task specification is a structured description of how to do something. This initial release is focused on how to perform maintenance activities, although the scope is not limited to this.

A task specification does not ask for work to be done, schedule work to be done, or initiate work being done. Nor does it record the fact that work has been done, nor the outcome of that work (although it can specify how the outcome should be recorded). A task specification is an electronic model of a maintenance procedure. However, unlike a document, a task specification can provide computer sensible references to things such as resources or cost properties. In an integrated software environment, when a task is scheduled, these links can be used to automatically book facilities or order spares, or to calculate the total duration and cost of the activity.

Task specification has a large scope - too large to be contained in a single capability. This capability limits itself to describing the information identifying the task, and describing general aspects of it - what is sometimes called the "meta-information". In addition, it provides the minimum of information to describe a single step task. There are four "extension" capabilities which go into particular areas of detail:

Task structure - describing how to record the details of the task as a detailed series of steps;
Task associations - describing how to create the links to resources, supporting documents, and so on;
Task and state - describing how relate a task to a range of "states" such as fault state or environmental conditions;
Task recording - describing how to specify the information that must be captured during the execution of a task.

This version is restricted to the usage phase of the task specification - that is, the phase when a task specification is being used in the field, rather than the phase where the support solution is being developed. However, it is necessary to associate status to the task specification, if only to ensure obsolete specifications are not used. In order that the status information is well specified, this release of this capability provides an outline task specification life cycle.

This version is also restricted in ambition, in that its aim is to provide a basic minimum capability covering only the most common and straightforward requirements. Over time, and as resources become available, the more general cases will be included.