ISO/TS 15926-11:2023

Overview

ISO/TS 15926-11:2023 - "Industrial automation systems and integration - Integration of life‑cycle data for process plants … Part 11: Simplified industrial usage of reference data based on RDFS methodology" - defines a practical, RDFS-based approach to represent and exchange systems engineering and product life‑cycle data for process plants (including oil, gas and power). It enables creation of flexible product knowledge models by combining RDF triples, reference data dictionaries, and a standardized set of relationships to support data sharing, integration and hand‑over across organizations and supply chains.

Key topics and requirements

• RDFS methodology: Uses RDF Schema as the semantic modelling foundation to keep the approach accessible and broadly implementable.
• RDF triples and reification: Supports reification via RDF statements and RDF named graphs for traceable statements and metadata.
• Reference data integration: Designed to work with ISO 15926-series reference data libraries (RDLs) to represent standard entities and properties.
• Initial relationships: Provides an initial set of semantic relationships required for process‑plant life‑cycle representation.
• Configuration management: Includes methods to trace additions, changes and deletions in product and project data and to enable baselining.
• Data exchange container: Describes data container structures and a workflow for Common Data Environment (CDE) or hand‑over file creation.
• Validation: Recommends SPARQL for validation; examples use TriG for illustration (note: serialisation methods and definition of RDLs are outside the document’s scope).
• Low adoption threshold: A methodology focused on practical, engineer‑friendly RDF models rather than heavy ontology tooling (no OWL/SHACL requirements included).

Applications

• Exchange and handover of design, requirements, verification and operational data in EPC projects and asset life‑cycle management.
• Common Data Environment (CDE) implementations for process plants, oil & gas facilities, power plants, and related industries.
• Front‑end engineering and systems engineering data modelling where ISO 15926 semantics are required.
• Data integration between engineering tools, suppliers and owners using RDF‑based product models.

Who uses this standard

• Systems engineers, data architects and configuration managers
• EPC contractors, owners/operators in oil & gas, power and process industries
• Software vendors, integrators and CDE providers
• Suppliers and subcontractors exchanging standardized product data

Related standards

• ISO 15926 series (especially ISO 15926‑1 and ISO 15926‑2)
• ISO/TS 15926‑4, ISO/TS 15926‑7, ISO/TS 15926‑8 (reference data and templates)
• ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 (systems engineering processes)
• IEC 81346‑1 (structuring principles)

ISO/TS 15926‑11:2023 is a practical bridge between ISO 15926 semantics and lightweight, RDFS/RDF‑based implementations for real‑world data exchange and configuration management.