-The Nature of Assertions
— Create Information. And are the only source of information
Assertions are determined by Authorities, and always create information.
— Initiate Change
Information produced may initiate actions by other Authorities that change how Assertions are performed
— Support Agreements
Agreements are paired statements between authorities expressing intent. An authority may decide to offer to purchase and express that statement to an Authority that is authorized to commit to a sale. The seller decides to respond (by passing the hot dog to the buyer or issuing a statement of agreement and a statement initiating delivery). Any contract can be expressed as a set of expressed or assumed assertions.
— Must be Communicated
If the information from an Assertion is not used the determination is not necessary.
— Have a Veracity -Can be relied upon
The information from an assertion will carry a veracity defined by the receiver. The receiver may make subsequent Assertions based on how reliable they feel the information is.
— Can be characterized
An Assertion may be determined in a variety of ways. The input information may be assessed or reconfigured, calculated automatically or manually, or observed. It may be largely determined from knowledge information of the Authority. It may produce a very structured set of information defined by accepted terminology, or it might deliver textural information framed only by titled sections.
It may require time to determine. It may be executed regularly or intermittently, often or rarely. Each of these are characteristics of an assertion that help to understand it in its context.
— Produce a state of affairs – as individuals and collectively
The information produced by an assertion represent a state of affairs
— May be ephemeral
An Assertion may be determined and asserted only once, perhaps verbally. It may not be captured, or only captured in the memory of those who hear. It will persist only if a receiver determines and asserts in turn.
— Can describe Assertions
The details about an Assertion, its characterization can be asserted by an Authority to describe a business endeavour. The Assertion definition is business information that can be acted upon, perhaps to inform decisions to change how the business is designed. How it is to be determined. These assertion assertions are the components of a business design.
— May be repeated or asserted only once.
— May be described in their own right and used for business design.
-Determination
— Applies logic
How the determination is made includes logical assumptions applied by the Authority. These may be guided by specifications and by industry logic patterns.
— Uses available information
The Assertion must be based on information, and the quality ( and veracity) of the output is dependent on the quality of the information and on knowledge brought by the Authority.
— Are determined when input information is received
An Assertion is re-determined if the input information is changed. The resulting information may or may not change. Implementations may decide that repeated identical outputs do supply revised information because of then they are determined.
-Information
— produce simple and complex information
The information produced (see above)
— Are useless if not used. must be conveyed
— May store information when implemented
If an Assertion is implemented it may constitute a data store. It has received a set of information and passed it on. The output will be inspected when a ‘downstream’ assertion is to be determined, perhaps when one of its information inputs is refreshed. In this context the assertion can act as a ‘implemented database’. Conceptually a complete database is a structured single assertion, with a responsible Authority. The addition of an update results from an assertion and is determined automatically by the DB. Once updated the schema (Frame in Assertion terms) contains the information with its meaning defined as the meaning of the schema, formal or assumed.
— May produce information that is mis-interpreted
An Assertion populates a Frame that provides its meaning. Its meaning in terms of the Authority.
Assertions that use that information may have assumed different meaning for the values provided.
This semantic disconnect must be accepted or resolved. A default the issuing Authority defines the meaning. And receivers use is their responsibility. In some cases it may be that the Authority has been charged with supplying a structure and information to meet the receivers needs.
In this case the specifications of the Authority have been negotiated and defined by the receiver and the producer is responsible for ensuring consistency with respect to specifications.
These concepts are important in organizations charges with data governance constraints.
-Usage
— Can be designed
Assertions and sets of Assertions can be designed. As descriptions they can be inspected to determine if important criteria for the operation of the organization are met. A set of assertions is a perspective or model that may together define a future desired state of how information is available and used for determining key performance needs.
-Implementation
— Assertions are implemented when there is an environment that is accessible to the Authority, and the means are provided to deliver input information to it, and from it are available in that environment.
These Concepts are the foundation of a consistent understanding of Assertions and a method that promotes their use in a method to capture business endeavours.
What Is An Assertion has more details on Assertion Concept