The paper introduces a new concept to express the architecture and behavior of distributed systems in a formal, detailed and extensible manner in terms of reference point facets (RP-facets). RP-facets are based on the well-established concept of reference points as used in ODP and TINA. Facets describe statical and dynamic aspects of reference points as well as preand post-conditions for their ...

The paper presents a reflection on some of the basic assumptions and philosophy of reference point approaches, stressing their unique concentration on the sovereignty of the subjective decision maker. As a new development in reference point approaches also the concept of objective ranking is stressed, defined as dependent only on a given set of data, relevant for the decision situation, and ind...