3.2.2 Explicit Separation of Interpretive Concerns

Return to 3.2 Design Principles of the FDIS Reference Architecture

The Federated Data Interpretation Systems Reference Architecture (FDIS-RA) enforces a clear separation among:

Reported artifactsObserved factsSemantic representationsInterpretation logicDerived factsValidation and assessment outcomesThis separation is a foundational architectural principle. It prevents evidence, observation, interpretation, and assessment from collapsing into opaque and inseparable system behavior.

By maintaining these concerns as distinct architectural responsibilities, FDIS-RA preserves evidentiary inputs independently of the meanings, classifications, calculations, and conclusions later applied to them.

This separation enables organizations to:

Inspect how an interpretation was producedChallenge or review an interpretive resultApply revised definitions or rulesReplace an interpretation methodReassess historical informationPreserve the original reported material without recharacterisationThe principle is essential for long-lived regulatory systems in which definitions, rules, parameters, and interpretive practices evolve over time.

Without explicit separation, changes in interpretation may appear to alter the meaning of previously reported information retroactively. Such coupling undermines:

FDIS-RA therefore treats the separation of interpretive concerns as a prerequisite for trustworthy and governable data interpretation rather than as an implementation choice.

A component may perform more than one responsibility within a particular implementation, but the architecture preserves the logical distinctions among those responsibilities and requires their inputs, outputs, authority, provenance, and version context to remain identifiable.

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