ISO/IEC 15944-5:2008 is directed at being able to identify and reference laws and regulations impacting eBusiness scenarios and scenario components as external constraints. The primary source of such external constraints is jurisdictional domains.

ISO/IEC 15944-5:2008 focuses on addressing the simple, i.e. definable, aspects of external constraints for which the source is a jurisdictional domain. A useful characteristic of external constraints is that at the sectoral, national and international levels, etc. focal points and recognized authorities often already exist. The rules and common business practices in many sectoral areas are already known. Use of ISO/IEC 15944-5:2008 (and related standards) will facilitate the transformation of these external constraints (business rules) into specified, registered and reusable scenarios and scenario components.

The Business Transaction Model, explained in ISO/IEC 15944-1, has two classes of constraints, namely:

• those which are self-imposed and agreed to as commitments among the parties themselves, i.e. internal constraints; and
• those which are imposed on the parties to a business transaction based on the nature of the good, service and/or rights exchanged, and the nature of the commitment made among the parties (including ability to make commitments, the location, etc.), i.e. external constraints.

The focus of ISO/IEC 15944-5:2008 is on external constraints. Jurisdictional domains are the primary source of external constraints.

ISO/IEC 15944-5:2008 provides the key concepts required for addressing the legal environment in developing the Business Operational View of business transactions and scenarios which involve and are required to support external constraints.

It begins with an exploration of the jurisdictional domain as a source of external constraint on the business process, both from the perspective of a Person and as a Public Administration. It then presents key constraints governing ISO/IEC 15944-5:2008 through principles and rules.

It examines a key element in business transactions, that of the use of language. Jurisdictions can identify and, in some cases, impose the use of language in a business transaction. In this regard, the ISO/IEC 15944-5:2008 looks at the relationship of the constraint imposed by a jurisdictional domain on the choice of language used.

Public policy constraints are also examined and key requirements for their inclusion in external constraints are identified, especially where they can affect the modelling of Open-edi scenarios and the business transaction components of Persons, data and processes. In particular, there is a set of rules that govern the identification and categories of jurisdictional domains as individual states as well as sets of entities, both regional and international.

ISO/IEC 15944-5:2008 also focuses on the identification of rules governing the formation and identification of jurisdictional domains. It identifies the more primitive subtypes of jurisdictional domains and includes two approaches for the unambiguous identification of referencing of (subtypes of) jurisdictional domain.

ISO/IEC 15944-5:2008 also provides checklists, through the use of templates, to guide the user through the mechanics of determining the source of the external constraint(s) where these are jurisdictional domains and determining the adequacy of the scenario specification as well as those of the scenario components.

Annexes provide elaboration on the points raised in the main body.