Relationship

Definition

A Relationship is a governed semantic association between Objects. A Relationship expresses how Objects are connected within the operational model. Unlike a Reference, a Relationship conveys business meaning.

Purpose

This document defines Relationship within the OCOM Specification.

Relationship represents the semantic association between two or more Objects.

Relationships enable organizations to model operational structures, dependencies, ownership, collaboration, and business meaning independently of implementation technologies.

Business meaning

Relationships enable organizations to describe operational reality as interconnected Objects rather than isolated elements.

They provide the structural foundation for business models, workflows, governance, memory, knowledge, and artificial intelligence.

Design principles

Every Relationship shall:

• connect identifiable Objects
• express business semantics
• remain explicit
• support governance
• preserve traceability
• remain technology independent

Core characteristics

• Identifier
• Source Object
• Target Object
• Relationship Type
• Direction
• Cardinality
• Status
• Validity Period
• Constraints
• Governance Rules

Relationship to other specifications

Relationship interacts with:

• ocom:Object
• ocom:Identity
• ocom:Reference
• ocom:Metadata
• ocom:Registry
• ocom:Ownership
• ocom:Policy
• ocom:Constraint
• ocom:Organization

Organization connects to other Objects exclusively through Relationship (see Meta/Organization.md).

Compared with

• OCOM vs Knowledge Graph — Similar

Independence — does not prescribe

• database relationships
• graph technologies
• object models
• APIs
• implementation technologies

Conformance

A compliant implementation shall ensure that every managed Relationship:

• define Relationships explicitly
• preserve business semantics
• support lifecycle management
• maintain traceability
• support governance
• remain technology independent

Provenance

Governance records: CAND-005

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