Glossary
Adapter
A collection of software components that, collectively, allow the SBE System to interact with a Digital Tool. Typically built using the SBE Adapter SDK.
Advice
Potential change(s) to a Model that have been produced by an Agent for acceptance or rejection by end users.
Agent
Unit of decision support automation for the SBE system. Declaratively created and maintained by domain experts, agents can be used to create advice or perform other attended or unattended actions.
Aggregation
A relational pattern that provides a hierarchical arrangement of Models that uses Occurrences to manage the relationship between a parent Model and it's shared (sometimes independently versionable) children Models.
ALM
Acronym for [A]pplication [L]ifecycle [M]anagement. Represents a Digital Tool used to manage the software development process, often for real-time embedded software.
ASoT
Acronym for [A]uthoritative [S]ource [o]f [T]ruth. The Digital Tool that is the ultimate arbiter of state for certain Items. The notation can be extended in the form: ASOT [Source Name] e.g. for System A that publishes into the Digital Thread, it can be identified as "ASOT A".
Authoritative
Applies to any Item within a Digital Tool where that Digital Tool is defined to be the sole source of truth for the Item.
Baseline
Industry term meaning an agreed upon description of a thing, at a point in time, which serves as a basis for defining change. Conceptually implemented in the SBE System as a Tag
Branch
A kind of Entity Set that holds a collection of Entities that can be revised because they are considered to be Work-in-Process (WIP).
Change Set
Industry term, synonym for Merge Request.
Channel
Digital Thread business object that represents a bi-directional information pipeline for data transmission between an Entity Set and a versionable unit of containment in a Data Source as specified by it's channel properties.
Class
Describes the taxonomy and structure of a Model and is cataloged in an Ontology.
Composition
A relational pattern that provides the ability to nest one Item or Model within another.
Configuration
One or more EntitySets (Branch or a Tag) arranged in a hierarchy that help provide context to the Lifecycles contained within them.
Containment
A relational pattern that provides hierarchical arrangement of the ownership of Items or Models whereby each has an optional owner and optional children.
Data Source
External system that is connected the SBE system. Typically identified by a protocol://hostname:port and is the ASoT for certain Items.
Data Source Type
Digital Thread business object that represents a kind of connection to a particular brand name of Digital Tool (e.g. Excel, DNG, etc.). Data Source Types determine the properties that must be supplied to define a Data Source.
Deployment
The named, running instances of one or more software microservices on Kubernetes.
Digital Thread
Industry term referring to a cohesive, interconnected set of Items throughout their Lifecycle, across multiple Digital Tools, that collectively comprise an organization's key engineering and manufacturing information.
Digital Tool
Any software tool that functions as an ASoT within a Digital Engineering environment.
Entity
Any Configuration managed, Lifecycled object in the SBE system such as a Class, Model, Mapping, or Agent.
Entity Set
Digital Thread business object that is a managed collection of Entities within a Partition.
Graph History
The acyclic graph of Lifecycles that correspond to an Item that has been repeatedly Branched and Tagged over time.
History
The linear collection of Versions under the Lifecycle of an Entity that have accumulated over time. Also called the Version History or Linear History.
Item
Any object stored in a Digital Tool in that system's native format.
Lifecycle
Holds the Versions of an Entity in a Configuration.
Link
An independently lifecycled, associative relationship between two Entities.
Mapping
Definition of a (typically bi-directional) transformation function between an Item and a Model mitigated by a resolved target Class defined in an Ontology.
MBSE
Acronym for [M]odel [B]ased [S]ystems [E]ngineering. Represents any Digital Tool used to manage architectures using SysML or some other language.
Merge
Persist changes in a Merge Request to one or more ASoTs.
Merge Request
A collection of Entities in one or more Partitions that are to be merged into their another Branch. Can have correlations with change sets in Digital Tools.
Metaclass Schema
Refers to the precise data model used by a Digital Tool to represent Items and Links. Typically is extended by customers.
Model
Digital Thread Entity that is an instance of a Class from an Ontology. Typically a Model is the SBE representation of a correlated Item in an External System.
Occurrence
An object used to create Aggregate Structures for within Digital Tools or SBE. Occurrences can have their own type and have their own properties.
Ontology
Set of Classes, with associated Property Definitions, and Relation Definitions that relate to one another with a Partition.
Partition
Digital Thread business object that is a container that owns a cohesive collection of Entity Sets. If the Partition corresponds to an Data Source then it's Entity Sets are Channeled to/from that Data Source.
PLM
Acronym for [P]roduct [L]ifecycle [M]anagement. Represents an External System used to manage and configure product data and related information.
Program
Industry term meaning a typically large-scale engineering project at a design-responsible organization.
Publish
Digital Thread operation whereby Items from an external Data Source are transmitted (through one more Channels) to one or more Entity Sets as Models. The Items published can be a mix of Authoritative and Subscribed Items.
Release
Industry term meaning an agreed upon description of a thing, at a point in time, which serves as a basis for shipping to customers. Implemented in the SBE System as a Tag.
SBE Platform
Also called the SBE Digital Thread Platform, the collection of container microservices that make up the functionality of the SBE System without including any Adapters.
SBE System
An installation of the SBE Platform with required Adapters and Shared Services.
SSoT
Acronym for [S]ubscribed [S]ource [o]f [T]ruth. An External System that holds transformed objects within a Subscription that originally came from an ASoT. The notation can be extended in the form: SSOT [Subscribing System Name -> ASOT Source System Name] where "->" is shorthand for "subscribes to" e.g. for System B that subscribes to items from ASOT A published into the Digital Thread, that subscription be identified as "SSOT B->A".
Structure
A formal relationship between Models formed in three ways: 1) Aggregation relationship between two Models utilizing target-link Occurrences. 2) A compositional relationship that utilizes typed Occurrences. 3) Containment relationship whereby a Model specifies it's owner.
Subscribe
Digital Thread operation whereby one or more Models from one or mode Entity Sets are transmitted (through a Channel) to a Digital Tool that is not the ASoT of those Models. In this instance that Data Source is known as a SSoT.
Subscription
Digital Thread business object that defines a subset of Models within one or more an ASoT Branches or Tags that have been cloned & transformed into other Branches or Tags for inclusion into a SSoT.
Tag
A kind of Entity Set that holds a snapshot of Entities that are considered frozen because they represent a Baseline or a Release.
Taxonomy
A mechanism of classification, typically composed of a hierarchy of Classes.
V&V
Verification and Validation
Validation
Industry term for a business process that proves a product Release candidate meets customer needs.
Variability
The ability for an ASoT to represent a single item differently based on effectivity dates and variant conditions (LHD/RHD, Base/Luxury, etc.). Typically applies to PLM type external systems.
Verification
Industry term for a business process that proves an engineered element of a product meets all of its specified requirements at a particular stage of its development.
Version
One of many alternatives of an Entity arranged in a linear progression within a Lifecycle that collectively represent the History of an Entity.
Work-In-Process
Industry term meaning the in-development Versions (typically the latest) of a product which is currently being engineered. Implemented in the SBE System by a Branch.