2 CTA Overview

The first section of this chapter provides an overview of the CTA, identifying the main components, purpose of each, and how they work together.

Subsequent sections list and define the component standards that comprise the CTA, which are presented in these groups:

• Information Technology Standards (Section 2.2 Information Technology Standards) are used as published from their respective standards organizations. These are underlying and development process standards, for example, XML, HDF5, and UML.
• Energistics Standards (Section 2.3 Energistics Standards) are based on existing standards and/or industry best practices, but have been tailored to meet the specific needs of upstream oil and gas and related data exchange.