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A reference data library is a structured, hierarchical catalogue of standardized classes, attributes, and permitted values used to describe equipment, materials, and documents consistently across a project or organization. Rather than every contractor, discipline, or system inventing its own way of naming an equipment class or attribute, a reference data library provides the shared vocabulary that everyone builds against.
In capital-intensive industries, reference data libraries are the technical foundation beneath standards like CFIHOS and ISO 15926, and beneath any owner-operator’s internal asset data requirements.
A reference data library typically defines equipment classes (from broad categories like “rotating equipment” down to specific types like “centrifugal pump”), the standardized technical attributes expected for each class, units of measure, and permitted value lists — so that a “design pressure” field, for example, means exactly the same thing and is expressed the same way regardless of which contractor or system produced it.
Without a shared reference data library, every handover between an EPC, its suppliers, and the owner-operator requires manual mapping between different naming conventions and attribute structures. A common reference data library eliminates most of this mapping work by ensuring data is structured the same way from the point of creation — which is exactly the problem the CFIHOS Reference Data Library (RDL) and the ISO 15926 RDL are designed to solve at an industry level.
Industry-standard reference data libraries, such as the CFIHOS RDL, provide a common baseline that many owner-operators and EPCs share, which is valuable for interoperability across the supply chain. Many owner-operators supplement this with a project- or company-specific reference data library that adds internal conventions, site-specific equipment classes, or attributes not yet covered by the industry standard. Managing the relationship between the two — extending an industry RDL without breaking compatibility with it — is an ongoing governance task.
The reference data library defines the vocabulary; the Master Tag Register (MTR) is where that vocabulary gets applied to actual tagged equipment on a specific project or facility. Every tag in the MTR should reference a defined equipment class in the reference data library, and every attribute recorded against it should use the corresponding standardized attribute name and unit of measure.
Sharecat structures incoming tag and equipment data against CFIHOS-aligned reference data library classes and attributes, validating submissions from EPCs and suppliers against the expected structure before they are accepted into the project record. This ensures asset data is consistently classified from the point of entry, rather than requiring reconciliation after the fact.
What is a reference data library used for?
It provides the standardized vocabulary — equipment classes, attributes, units of measure, permitted values — that lets different contractors and systems describe the same type of asset consistently, without needing manual reconciliation.
Is the CFIHOS reference data library the same as ISO 15926?
They are related but distinct: the CFIHOS RDL builds on the ISO 15926 semantic framework but is structured specifically around the practical data requirements defined for project handover. See ISO 15926 for the underlying framework.
ISO
27001
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