IEPD Structure

An Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD) is a set of NIEM artifacts whose principal content is schema documents, the purpose for which is to define and declare reusable data components for information exchanges or to define the exchanges themselves. They are a NIEM artifact defined by the Model Package Description Specification (MPD-Spec) and are a kind of Model Package Description (MPD).

IEPDs require a self-documenting MPD Catalog artifact containing metadata and a listing of the IEPD’s key artifacts. The MPD Catalog establishes identification metadata, conformance targets, purpose, general content, lineage, and other metadata. Metadata includes:

• Uniform Resource Identifier (URI)
• Name
• Version number
• The conformance target identifier
• A copy of all schema documents needed to validate any instance document class it defines
• (Optional) Alternate representations in addition to XML Schema (e.g., generic diagram, UML/XMI, database format, spreadsheet, etc.)
• (Optional) Miscellaneous other documentation or file artifacts for assisting with usage or implementation

IEPD Artifacts

For well-formed IEPDs, several common artifacts are found contained in their definitions:

• A README artifact
• MPD Catalog describing the contents of the IEPD
• Subset, Extension, or External Schema Documents which define a self-consistent Schema Document Set (SET)
• At least one declared IEP conformance target
• Sample instance documents that validate to the SET
• A Change Log describing incremental changes and updates to the IEPD
• A Conformance Report specifying how and to what degree the IEPD is NIEM-Conformant

The README Artifact

A README artifact (formerly known as a master document) is mandatory for all IEPDs. IEPDs are often built by different developers, and may be registered into a repository for reuse by many other users, developers, and implementers; therefore, a minimal form of documentation is absolutely necessary. An IEPD README file is the primary source and starting point for human readable documentation, and should reference (and describe) any other separate documentation artifacts. This requirement ensures that baseline documentation is consistently rooted in a clearly visible artifact within each IEPD.