Process

Represents a process tracking concept.

Scope

This data type is intended to represent the core concept of a defined process.

Loosely taking inspiration from HL7 Timing.

Structure

• A Process shall always contain a class and concept attribute.
  • The class ordered set shall have at least one concept, and no more than three concepts defined. Classes do not require the full path hierarchy defined depending on what the intention of the concept being shared.
• A Process may contain a status attribute.
  • The status attribute acts as a free text field which represents the specific status value that may be stored or encoded in the transmitting system.
  • If status is defined, the description and status_code attributes may optionally be defined as well.
• The recipient system shall primarily rely on the class and concept attributes.
  • Recipient systems may choose to parse the status, description and status_code attributes as auxiliary or supplementary data.
  • Recipient systems shall not depend on these attributes as they are not guaranteed to exist, nor do they convey the standard concept hierarchy as defined by this specification.

Name	Cardinality	Type	Description & Constraints
class	1..*	string[]	An ordered set of process tracking terms.
concept	1..1	string	A URI reference to the concept map encodings used.
description	0..1	string	An optional description of the status if present.
status	0..1	string	An optional description of the current condition or update of an application or authorization. Additional details about the current state are frequently conveyed (e.g., 'Pending Review', 'Under Inspection'). Statuses may be defined by the line of business.
status_code	0..1	Code	An optional codified representation of the status attribute. Status codes may be defined by the line of business.

Specification

Schema

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Source

{
  "$id": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bcgov/nr-pies/refs/heads/main/docs/spec/data/process.schema.json",
  "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
  "title": "Process",
  "description": "Represents a process tracking concept.",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "class": {
      "type": "array",
      "description": "An ordered set of process tracking terms.",
      "items": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": "A process tracking term."
      },
      "minItems": 1,
      "maxItems": 3,
      "uniqueItems": true
    },
    "concept": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "A URI reference to the concept map encodings used.",
      "format": "uri",
      "pattern": "^https://bcgov.github.io/nr-pies/docs/concept/*$"
    },
    "description": {
      "description": "An optional description of the status if present.",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "status": {
      "description": "An optional description of the current condition or update of an application or authorization. Additional details about the current state are frequently conveyed (e.g., 'Pending Review', 'Under Inspection'). Statuses may be defined by the line of business.",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "status_code": {
      "description": "An optional codified representation of the status attribute. Status codes may be defined by the line of business.",
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^[^\\s]+( [^\\s]+)*$"
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "class",
    "concept"
  ]
}

Example

{
  "class": [
    "Application",
    "Review",
    "Assessment"
  ],
  "concept": "http://bcgov.github.io/nr-pies/docs/concept/process_tracking",
  "description": "The authorization request is under review by subject matter expert.",
  "status": "UnderReview",
  "status_code": "UR"
}

Implementation Notes

The core of the process type is the representation of one of the paths in the Process Tracking Concept Map. This is represented in the class attribute as an ordered tuple. Each entry in the ordered set represents a specific detail level in the hierarchy. For example, the array value of ["Application", "Review", "Assessment"] would indicate that the process concept being conveyed is representing the Assessment Stage within the Review Phase of an Application Lifecycle.

The class array may be populated with fewer elements in situations where the concept being mapped represents a higher level concept. For example, if the class attribute only contains the array value of ["Application", "Review"], that means that only the Review Phase of an Application Lifecycle is represented; the more detailed Stage concept is not encoded. Systems reading the class attribute may extract a subset of the transmitted ordered array for processing since the lower level concepts map to higher level concepts in the concept map.

The concept attribute is a static URI reference to the documentation for the current concept map being used. This URI is not intended to be machine readable as it is designed to act as a signal for human readers to see and understand the context of which terminologies and concepts are being conveyed.

The status attribute is optional, but is designed to be an explicit "escape hatch" for specific lines of business to share their most detailed system concepts, should they choose to do so. Statuses declared here will be implicitly mapped under the declared class ordered tuple. If a status is defined, the description and status_code attributes may also be defined in order to assist with clarifying the status value.

Recipient systems may look at status, status_code and description as a reference point. However, the core intent of this data type is to ensure that the core class attribute to be the main source of truth when handling and interpreting the data for processing. Recipient systems SHOULD NOT depend on either status, status_code or description attributes when parsing and interpreting the process concept.

References

• Code
• Process Tracking Concept Map