Skip to main content
CIECA

CIECA 103
Anatomy of a Service

All CIECA Standards are organized into Services that support industry workflows. In this module we will take a look at how a Service is organized and the components that make up a service.

Service Home Page

Each service has a home page that provides easy navigation to all the components that make up that service. As you become more familiar with how content is organized, it soon becomes easy to find what you need quickly and easily.

  • The upper section contains Support Documents such as the data dictionary and code lists. The contents of these documents are common to the various messages contained within the service.
  • The lower section contains the individual CIECA Messages. Each message contains an Implementation Guide that provides detailed instructions on the usage of the message.


We'll take a closer look at each of these in the sections that follow.

Support Documents

Use Case

All CIECA Standards are organized by the use case they support. Within each one, there are detailed instructions and information about the purpose of the use case and how businesses use it, which are supported by industry-standard workflows, schemas, codes lists and Implementation Guides. Below are details about how each use case is structured.

Pre-Conditions

Identifies any processes or sub-processes that may arise in advance of this use case.

Outcome

Defines the expected outcome or deliverable from the message.


Industry Segments

Identifies the various business processes that the standards support.

Description

Provides an overview of the purpose of the use case and corresponding standards.

Triggers

Defines the business processes or events that give rise to the use case.

Industry Benefits

This is a detailed list of the benefits a company can leverage by using a CIECA industry standard vs. developing a proprietary solution.

Actors

Includes a list of all the businesses or company types that may be a party to a use case or workflow.  

Notes

If there are special conditions or usage options, they will be noted here.

Workflows

Every service is built around a universal industry workflow.  These workflows were developed by committees comprised of people from across the industry to define an essential workflow that is applicable in almost every circumstance.  (Note: Individual companies may have variations that are unique to their process, but the workflows included here will contain those core processes that are common to any use case.)

Data Dictionary

As one of the most important documents in a CIECA Standard, the Data Dictionary contains a comprehensive listing of all the data elements contained in the various CIECA services. It defines the data type, field length and other attributes of the data.


See CIECA 105 - The Data Dictionary for more details.

Code Lists

A code list is a comprehensive list of all industry standard codes used in collision and API / webservices. The code list consists of spreadsheets aligned with the services they support. The code lists are designed to work with the Data Dictionary to identify the variables that relate to its data elements.

Schemas

Comprehensive library of schemas that support all services. Each schema defines the data elements required to support a service and provides the appropriate structure and context.


Schema files can be downloaded to simplify and streamline the development process.

CIECA Messages

CIECA Messages

Each service consists of multiple messages that support the exchange of information between trading partners.  


At a minimum, a service will generally consist of:

  • Add Request
  • Change Request
  • Cancel Request
  • Response
Additional messages may be included to support the full range of workflows / processes related to a service.

Complex Processes

Services that support a range of workflows will have messages that support each process. Some services, such as the Procurement Service, have as many as 12 messages contained within the service.

Training Home
Prior Module
Next Module