The CDIF Family of Standards is primarily designed to be used as a description of a mechanism for transferring information between CASE tools. It facilitates a successful transfer when the authors of the importing and exporting tools have nothing in common except an agreement to conform to CDIF. The language that is defined for the Transfer Format also has applicability as a general language for Import/Export from repositories. The CDIF Integrated Meta-model defined for CASE also has applicability as the basis of standard definitions for use in repositories.

The standards that form the complete family of CDIF Standards are documented in EIA/IS-106 CDIF - CASE Data Interchange Format - Overview. These standards cover the overall framework, the transfer format and the CDIF Integrated Meta-model.

The diagram in Figure 1 depicts the various standards that comprise the CDIF Family of Standards. The shaded box depicts this Standard and its position in the CDIF Family of Standards.

This standard defines the Common Subject Area of the CDIF Integrated Meta-model. This subject area contains meta-objects that are used as the basis of the other subject area standards, and also meta-relationships and meta-attributes that are applicable to all meta-objects.