Code of PLM Openness (CPO)

Task and objective

The trend towards modular, composable PLM architectures makes considerable demands on the openness of the individual software modules. Ensuring this openness and thus making it easier to integrate IT applications in corporate networks or IoT environments is the purpose of the Code of PLM Openness. The CPO is an initiative of the prostep ivip Association and is sponsored by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK).

The CPO links technical IT requirements with user requirements and is intended to make it possible for companies to evaluate the openness of software vendors and their products. The criteria catalog comprises measurable criteria for categories such as interoperability, infrastructures, extensibility, interfaces, standards, architectures and partner relationships. With the support of the German accreditation body (DAkkS), the prostep ivip Association is developing a certification program that will in the future also certify the openness of software solutions.

Focus and concrete results

In the past year, the CPO project team dealt primarily with making the previous, organization-centric CPO certification more efficient and establishing it at international level in cooperation with DAkkS. At the same time, it paved the way for the CPO certification of software products in consultation with the prostep ivip Association's Standardization Strategy Board (SSB). It is intended that the CPO project team be expanded successively to include user companies and software vendors from the fields of electrics/electronics development and software development to ensure that requirements in terms openness in these fields are taken into account.

Progress has been made in all three areas but further effort will be required in the current year. The project team is working intensively on a possible certification process for software products. The objective is to create a documentation-based certification process that is flexible enough to be used for different types of software (application domains).

Organizational and technical challenges

The main topics mentioned above are extremely complex in technical terms and require an intensive consensus building effort between users and vendors. That is why the CPO project group is trying to think outside the box and is collaborating with the more user-oriented SSB project group. This however requires a level of coordination between the groups that had previously not been envisaged – along the lines of a workflow forum and implementor forum.

Planning for the current year 2023

During the course of the current year, the CPO project group intends to continue to define processes and criteria for the certification of software with regard to openness. It will step up its collaboration with the SSB, in which a relatively large number of user companies are represented, in order to meet user requirements.

What the project coordinator says:

"Cohesion and collaboration in the CPO project group were very good, which meant that we made progress with regard to software certification in particular. The fact that meetings were only held virtually didn't have a negative impact on the work."

What the project manager says:

"We need more input from user companies especially in the context of software certification. Which is why we want to intensify our collaboration with the SSB in the current year."

Project management

Project chair WF, IF, BM:
Andrea Denger, AVL List GmbH

Project coordination

Dr. Mario Leber
Tel.: +49 151 2043 5228
E-Mail: mario.leber(at)prostep.com

Participants

Atos SE
AVL List GmbH
CONTACT Software GmbH
CONWEAVER GmbH
Dassault Systemes SE
Mercedes Benz Group AG
PTC Inc.
Robert Bosch GmbH
Siemens Digital Industries Software Inc.
T-Systems International GmbH
XPLM Solutions GmbH