CONTACT Software, who co-authored the "Code of PLM Openness", is now involved in a further important initiative for open systems in the field of product lifecycle management. Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC) is an organization that uses established Web technology as the basis for developing standards for integrating proprietary software and product lifecycle tools and the associated data and workflows with the aim of achieving end-to-end lifecycle processes.
Standards like this open up application scenarios in which product information that is distributed over different IT solutions can be explicitly linked and used across system boundaries. This facilitates collaboration in interdisciplinary project teams, since it is no longer the case that joint development tasks will always result in the need to exchange data. And for companies, the outlay involved in implementing and maintaining a whole range of point-to-point interfaces is also reduced.
The software landscape in product development is one of the most complex applications to be found anywhere in the realm of IT. A large number of different tools and methods are used in the various disciplines such as mechanical engineering, E/E, software, simulation, production planning, etc. But a lack of openness due to proprietary formats and inadequate or unavailable interfaces are obstacles to more intensive collaboration between the disciplines. OSLC, on the other hand, takes its lead from the Internet and uses Web standards such as HTTP, REST, RDF and XML to make product data such as requirements, changes, quality issues, product items and so on available in the various systems.
"Our guiding principle is to provide end-to-end support for collaborative corporate processes with open solutions,” says Frank Patz-Brockmann, Head of Development at CONTACT. “We have joined the OSLC initiative because it represents a promising approach to achieving interoperability between systems with regard to the information and business processes embodied in them without having to overcome enormous hurdles."
