An Introduction to ISO 15926 November 2011 - iRINGToday

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Fig 1.13 One owner, two engineers, and three constructors.
Overall, there are 18 players with 45 different connections between them. Remember that
each colored line in Figure 1.13 represents a separate mapping project involving hundreds or,
in the case of the EPC contractor-to-owner transfer, thousands of data-point maps. Of course,
no one would ever do this.
Even if the owner were willing to pay for all custom database maps (either explicitly or built
into the prices), the speed with which the maps would have to be created would be prohibitive.
Once an owner signs an agreement to begin detailed engineering, there is no time to
spare. The requirement that all bidders agree to a database mapping exercise before submitting
bids delays a project significantly.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the whole world would agree on a common manner of describing plant
objects and a common set of definitions? Then we could just tell each other “Have your
machine talk to my machine.” If all participants map their databases to a common standard,
everyone only has to map their applications once—ever.
We Need a Babel Fish
To reuse a metaphor, we need a Babel fish (Figure 1.14) to translate information from one company
to another. Fortunately, ISO 15926 acts very much like a Babel fish.
• Each company creates its own ISO 15926 interface and makes it available to its business
partners.
• Each company maps its own database (or at any rate, those portions of its database it
wishes to publish to the project participants) to the ISO 15926 standard, and opens it to its
partners.
• Each company creates an application that can access the interfaces of its business partners.
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