The CDIF family of standards is primarily designed to be used as a description of a mechanism for transferring

information between modelling tools. It facilitates a successful transfer when the authors of the importing and

exporting tools have nothing in common except an agreement to conform to CDIF.

The CDIF family of standards includes a semantic metamodel and a transfer format definition. It also includes the

specification of a meta-metamodel and associated rules that define a framework for the semantic metamodel and

the transfer format. The language that is defined for the transfer format also has applicability as a general language

for Import/Export for repositories. The CDIF semantic metamodel also has applicability as the basis of standard

definitions for use in repositories.

The diagram in Figure 1 depicts the various standards that comprise the CDIF family of standards. The shaded box

depicts this Standard and its position in the CDIF family of standards.

This document introduces the CDIF family of standards and defines the terms common to the CDIF family of

standards.

This document is intended to be used by anyone wishing to understand and/or use CDIF. This document provides

an introduction to the entire CDIF family of standards. It is suitable for:

 Those evaluating CDIF,

 Those who wish to understand the principles and concepts of a CDIF transfer, and

 Those developing importers and exporters.

This document, ISO/IEC 15474-1:2002, Information technology - CDIF framework - Part 1: Overview, and the

Framework document ISO/IEC 15474-2:2002, Information technology - CDIF framework - Part 2: Modelling and

extensibility, should be read first when initially exploring CDIF and before attempting to read other documents in the

CDIF family of standards.

While there are no specific prerequisites for reading this document, it will be helpful for the reader to have familiarity

with the following:

 Entity-Relationship-Attribute modelling;

 Modelling (CASE) tools;

 Information repositories;

 Data dictionaries;

 Multiple meta-layer modelling.