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Technical description - DEX Specifications
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A PLCS DEX Specifcation is a selected subset of the PLCS Integrated Data Model designed to
support efficient exchange of information between IT systems or organizations.
The DEXs are defined to support specific business processes. A DEX may support
a part of, one or several arrows from the PLCS Activity Model. The PLCS DEXs
can be used to:
- Automate the process of populating one single Life Cycle PDM system.
- Automate an ongoing exchange of data between different IT systems that
are PLCS compliant and share the same information management rules.
- Demonstrate compliance of a software application to an agreed set of
information management rules, based on the PLCS standard.
The index to the left lists the available Data Exchange Sets
(DEXs). Each DEX contains:
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an introduction, explaining the nature and purpose of the exchange set.
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a scope statement, defining the permitted information content.
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a business context for the data exchange, including an extract
from the AP239 Application Activity Model coloured to show the information
flows (arrows) that the DEX supports.
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an overview of the DEX information model.
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reference to the individual Capabilities used by the DEX to specify its
contents.
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identification of the AP239 Implementation Module from which the
DEX Long form is derived.
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a list of subordinate modules and entities used by the DEX.
Each DEX Specification is identified by a number, an identifier and a name, e.g.
- number — D001
- identifier — product_breakdown_for_support
- name — Product Breakdown for Support
These are assigned to the DEX Specification in the initial
development process
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when the need for the DEX Specification has been established.
Different DEX Specifications are used in the products different life cycle stages.
How they relate to each other is explained in figure 1.
Figure 1 — How DEX Specifications relate to each other.
