ISO/IEC 11179-5:2015

Overview

ISO/IEC 11179-5:2015 - Information technology - Metadata registries (MDR) - Part 5: Naming principles - specifies principles and rules for developing naming conventions in metadata registries. It covers naming for the core registry items defined in ISO/IEC 11179‑3: concept, data element concept, conceptual domain, data element, and value domain. The standard explains how names relate to identifiers and provides examples and guidance (including language-specific notes for Asian languages) to produce clear, consistent registry names.

Key topics and technical requirements

• Scope of naming: Define which registry items a naming convention applies to (namespaces and sets of designatable items).
• Authority: Document who controls and approves the naming convention.
• Semantic rules: Describe how names convey meaning and how semantic components map to registry concepts.
• Syntactic rules: Specify structure, separators, and allowable constructs for names.
• Lexical rules: Cover character sets, capitalization, abbreviations and language-specific considerations (Annex B addresses Asian languages).
• Uniqueness rules: Ensure names are unique within a namespace; the standard distinguishes between conformance and strict conformance depending on whether rules “should” or “shall” be documented.
• Registry metamodel classes: Discuss the Namespace and Naming Convention classes and relationships between scoped identifiers and names.
• Conformance models: Defines rules for a conforming or strictly conforming registry and for systems using namespaces.
• Guidance and examples: Annex A provides example naming conventions; Annex C includes concordance to the ISO/IEC 11179-3 metamodel.

Practical applications and who should use it

ISO/IEC 11179-5:2015 is practical for organizations wanting consistent metadata naming across systems and exchanges:

• Metadata architects and data governance teams defining registry naming policies.
• Software engineers and API designers implementing data interchange formats (XML, JSON) and schema names.
• Enterprise data managers standardizing data element names across reports, databases, and applications.
• Registry implementers who must document namespaces, naming conventions and demonstrate conformance.

Benefits include improved clarity of data definitions, easier data integration, and better discovery of metadata across an enterprise or federated systems.

Related standards

• ISO/IEC 11179 series (Parts 1–6): Framework, Classification, Registry metamodel (11179‑3), Formulation of data definitions (11179‑4), Registration (11179‑6).
• Use Part 5 together with ISO/IEC 11179‑3 for metamodel alignment and with Part 6 for registration procedures.

Keywords: ISO/IEC 11179-5:2015, metadata registries, MDR, naming principles, naming conventions, data element, conceptual domain, value domain, registry conformance.