Attribute

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Property, an abstraction of a characteristic of an entity or substance. In open assessment in particular a characteristic of an assessment product (assessment, variable or class), and assessment process (e.g. method or model). In open assessment all these objects have the same set of attributes:

• Name
• Scope
• Definition
• Result

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All of the above-mentioned object types in the formal universal information structure are described using the same set of attributes:

• Name
• Scope
• Definition
• Result

Name attribute is an identifier for an object that helps to distinguish a particular object from others. Name of an object should be unique and descriptive of what the object is intended to contain, in particular what is the scope of the object.

Scope attribute contains an expression of what is a particular object intended to describe, i.e. the physical and abstract boundaries of the objects. For assessment and variable objects scope description is an expression of what part of reality is the object intended to describe. Scope does not have a true counterpart in reality, it is always referential to the instrumental use purpose of the object it relates to.

Definition attribute contents attempt to describe the internal structure of the part of reality that the object is intended to describe and the relations of the interior with reality outside the scope. For assessment objects definition appears in practice as a list of contents. For variables it is a description of how the result of the variable can be derived or calculated.

Result attribute is an expression of the state of the part of reality that the object describes. It is the outcome of the contents under the definition attribute.

Each attribute may contain three kinds of information:

• Actual content (only this will have an impact on other objects)
• Narrative description (to help understanding the actual content). Includes uncertainty analysis.
• Discussion (argumentation about issues in the actual content)

Despite all the object types mentioned above do have the same unified set of attributes, the sub-attributes can differ (see Assessment and Variable). This derives from the differences in the nature and primary purpose of different object types as well as practical reasons.

In addition to the formally structured objects, there may objects that do not have a standardized format related to risk assessments, such as data and models that are used in defining assessments, classes and variables and their attributes. These freely structured objects are outside the information structure, but can be e.g linked or referred to within the formal defined objects.