ADR-010 — Process Ontology¶
Status¶
Accepted
Context¶
UC-BoK models 15 canonical retail processes. Without a precise process ontology, processes risk becoming either too granular (a list of system steps) or too abstract (a marketing label). The ontology must bridge the business intent of a process with its technical execution model (capabilities, events, objects) and its human execution model (actors, tasks — see ADR-016).
Decision¶
A UC-BoK Process is a named, canonical Unified Commerce scenario that produces a measurable business outcome. Processes are defined in SPEC-010.
Classification (four types):
| Type | Definition | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Fulfilment | Moves physical goods from network to customer | BOPIS, Ship-from-Store |
| Transaction | Executes a commercial exchange | Checkout, Self-Checkout |
| Relationship | Builds or maintains customer relationship | Clienteling Sale, Loyalty Enrollment |
| Reverse | Returns goods or value back through the network | BORIS, Return Anywhere |
Rules:
- A Process has a canonical
idinkebab-caseand a display name. - Every Process declares its trigger (what starts it), its outcome (what it produces), and its terminal states (success, failure, exception).
- A Process references the Capabilities it exercises, the Business Objects it manipulates, and the Events it produces.
- Processes are vendor-neutral — they describe what happens, not how a specific platform implements it.
- The 15 canonical processes are a closed set; new processes require an editorial board decision.
Consequences¶
catalogs/processes.yamlis the canonical process register.- Reference Architectures prioritise processes by vertical (ADR-013).
- The Operational Experience Layer (ADR-016) decomposes each Process into Journeys and Tasks.
- Query engine supports
processes-by-capabilityandjourneys-by-processtraversals.