Ownership

Definition

Ownership is the assignment of responsibility for one or more managed Objects. Ownership identifies the individual, team, organizational unit, or system responsible for governing an Object during all or part of its lifecycle. Ownership does not necessarily imply authorship or implementation responsibility.

Purpose

This document defines Ownership within the OCOM Specification.

Ownership establishes accountability and responsibility for managed Objects throughout their lifecycle.

Ownership enables organizations to assign clear responsibility for governance, maintenance, decision-making, and operational stewardship.

Business meaning

Ownership ensures that every managed Object has a clearly identified accountable party.

Clear ownership supports governance, operational continuity, change management, auditability, and organizational accountability.

Design principles

Ownership shall:

• be explicit
• be traceable
• support accountability
• support governance
• support lifecycle management
• remain technology independent

Core characteristics

Every Ownership assignment shall define:

• Identifier
• Owner
• Owned Object
• Responsibility Scope
• Effective Date

Ownership may additionally define:

• Ownership Type
• Delegation
• Review Schedule
• Expiration Date
• Successor Owner

Relationship to other specifications

Ownership interacts with:

• ocom:Object
• ocom:Identity
• ocom:Metadata
• ocom:Registry
• ocom:Policy
• ocom:Contract
• ocom:Lifecycle
• ocom:Evaluation
• ocom:Organization

Ownership establishes accountability without changing Object behavior.

Compared with

Read as: OCOM term, the nearest concept in the other model, and how close they are. Similar means the two carry the same intent; Partial means they overlap but differ in scope or obligation; None means the other model has no counterpart. The verdicts are site-published editorial judgments, not normative.

• OCOM vs Digital Twin: None
• OCOM vs Knowledge Graph: None
• OCOM vs Ontology: None
• OCOM vs Data Model: None
• OCOM vs Process Model: Partial (Lane / Role)
• OCOM vs ArchiMate: Partial (Business Role / Actor)
• OCOM vs MDM: Partial (Data Steward)

Independence

The Ownership specification does not prescribe:

• organizational structures
• job titles
• access control systems
• implementation technologies

Organizations remain free to implement Ownership using any compatible approach.

Ownership Types

Organizations may define Ownership Types including:

• Business Owner
• Operational Owner
• Technical Owner
• Data Owner
• Process Owner
• Product Owner
• AI Owner
• Custodian

Organizations may define additional Ownership Types.

Ownership Responsibilities

Ownership may include responsibility for:

• governance
• lifecycle management
• policy compliance
• quality
• maintenance
• approval
• review
• retirement

Responsibilities are organization-specific.

Shared Ownership

Objects may have multiple Owners.

Organizations shall define responsibility boundaries where shared ownership exists.

Shared ownership shall preserve accountability.

Delegation

Ownership responsibilities may be delegated.

Delegation shall:

• preserve accountability
• define delegated responsibilities
• identify delegated parties
• specify validity periods

Delegation history should be retained.

Ownership Lifecycle

Ownership may change during the lifecycle of an Object.

Organizations shall preserve:

• ownership history
• effective periods
• transfer history
• delegation history

Ownership changes shall not affect Object Identity.

Ownership Transfer

Organizations shall define controlled procedures for ownership transfer.

Ownership transfer should include:

• authorization
• effective date
• successor assignment
• audit recording

Transfer history shall remain traceable.

Governance

Organizations shall define governance for:

• ownership assignment
• ownership review
• delegation
• transfer
• retirement

Governance activities shall preserve accountability.

Auditability

Organizations shall preserve:

• ownership history
• delegation history
• transfer history
• governance decisions
• review history

Audit records shall remain immutable.

Conformance

A compliant implementation shall:

• assign Ownership to managed Objects where applicable
• preserve Ownership history
• support governance
• maintain auditability
• remain technology independent

Provenance

Governance records: CAND-005

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