Moving XBRL Forward: A Call for Action on XSB Strategic Initiatives

The XBRL International Standards Board (XSB) has reached another milestone in its effort to make the XBRL standard easier to develop, use, and pare. On October 6, it released Preserve. Promote. Participate. Moving XBRL Forward, which details six initiatives that aim to (1) protect current investments in XBRL; (2) enurage the adoption of XBRL worldwide; and (3) prepare XBRL for new opportunities in the future.

The proposals follow the XSB’s publication of the discussion document XBRL: Towards a Diverse Esystem in February. As John Turner and Chethan Gorur, former and current XSB Chairs respectively, explained in an interview with this blog at that time, the discussion document explored the future business requirements of the data standard and set forth a set of goals that would help ensure those needs.

In that interview, John and Chethan emphasized two points:

(1) There is no uncertainty about the stability of the existing XBRL standard, which works well and is being used suessfully in dozens of untries by millions of panies. The purpose of this XSB effort is entirely about doing the long-term planning that will ensure XBRL is a lasting and sustainable suess.

(2) Although the XSB had e up with specific goals and proposals for each, it was just at the disvery phase of the process. The key element in evaluating and refining this plan would be the feedback they received from developers, filers, analysts, investors, and all other XBRL stakeholders.

Now, based on the many ments, nstructive criticisms, and suggestions it received from a broad spectrum of respondents, the XSB has developed the six initiatives detailed in Preserve. Promote. Participate. The support of the XBRL munity, in the form of active participation, will be absolutely essential to ensure the suess of these initiatives. None of these strategies can be executed, or even initiated, without the mitment of skilled volunteers. Financial support is also critical. Individuals and pany representatives can express interest in one or many initiatives using the application form on page 23 of the document or the online registration form.

Chethan Gorur, John Turner, and Raymond Lam, XBRL International’s lead on the strategic initiatives, kindly agreed to answer a few questions about the six initiatives.

1. The discussion document that the XSB issued in February made proposals for the future of XBRL in three main areas:

• To make XBRL easier for developers
• To make XBRL information more parable across taxonomies
• To facilitate the nsumption of XBRL information for a wide range of existing and potential users

Did the feedback the XSB receive nfirm that these were indeed the goals on which it should focus? Were the ments about what you had expected, or were there any surprises?

The XSB was pleased with the level of feedback that was provided. There was good representation from both a geographic as well as end-user perspective. Many of those who responded not only answered the default survey questions, but also took the time to provide additional written details to acpany their responses to the questions. This level of detail was very useful and demonstrates that there are many people around the world that are ncerned about the future of the XBRL standard.

Many of the responses received echoed the theme of the three primary goals set out by the XSB, i.e., the  XBRL standard needs to be made easier – easier to develop, easier to pare, and easier to nsume. Hence, the XSB received positive affirmation that they were on the right track in terms of identifying the three primary goals.

2. What decision process did the XSB pursue in developing the initiatives? How did stakeholder feedback help shape them?

There were many suggestions provided by the respondents as to how XBRL uld be improved, and these responses have greatly influenced the six initiatives that the XSB is now presenting in the strategy document. The responses were first analyzed by the XSB, then summarized into discussion points. These points were discussed in detail, in multiple meetings, among XSB members.

This resulted in a high-level framework that served as the basis for the final six initiatives. It was important that these initiatives stacked up well against the three primary goals.  The strategy document presents the suess of this effort in this table:

Once the final six initiatives were identified, the XSB then spent some time to clearly define each initiative in terms of its high-level description, its benefits, and the remended approach for executing on the initiative.

3. What benefits do the six initiatives offer?

As shown on page 3 of Preserve. Promote. Participate., here are the six initiatives and their primary benefits:

A mon theme that readers will notice about the initiatives is that many of them are very developer-focused. That was a very important aspect to our decision-making process, as we felt that appealing to the software developer munity is in the overall best interests of the standard and the munity.

One of the clearest paths to inspiring further adoption is to reach out to those who will be building the XBRL-enabled systems of the future. We need to move from today’s reality, which is that XBRL development requires advanced XML skills and significant time, to a future state in which inrporating XBRL capabilities into software, or indeed developing XBRL software from scratch, is significantly easier for developers from a wide range of different technical backgrounds.

4. Moving ahead on some of the initiatives requires pletion of Initiative 1 – Create an Abstract Model. Does that initiative therefore have the highest priority? If so, what are the benefits of focusing on an abstract model first? Were other approaches nsidered and discarded?

All of the initiatives listed have a great level of importance in moving the XBRL standard forward. But the XSB felt that the abstract modeling initiative was the best one with which to get started. An abstract model will provide the proper foundation for some of the other initiatives, such as the standardization of API signatures. There was also discussion about what the dependencies were across the various initiatives; the abstract model was the one that seemed to be a mon prerequi to others, and hence, it has been assigned the first priority.

The value of providing a standard abstract model should not be underestimated. Software engineers and their development teams are typically well-versed in using abstract models as a means of capturing both the structure and dynamics inherent in plex information systems. These abstract models serve as a vital tool for munication and serve as the blueprint for software nstruction during implementation.

The fact that the XBRL specification is currently lacking a standard abstract model poses a requirement on XBRL-based projects to engineer an XBRL model for themselves. This not only adds a degree of st to the project, but it increases the likelihood of interoperability issues further down the road because other projects or vendors may not have formulated a model that is in 100% agreement. This is why we feel that having a standard abstract model in place will lead to a more unified understanding of the XBRL specification. That is an important foundational rnerstone to have in place, not just for the other five initiatives, but for all future work products produced by XII.

5. How do the six initiatives align with the efforts of current XII working groups and task forces? Do you see any danger that the initiatives will pete or overlap with them?

The current XII working groups are focused on new and enhanced XBRL technical specifications, which are the foundation for all XBRL technical development world-wide. Those efforts will ntinue as per the roadmap published by the XSB and have no immediate nnection with the initiatives outlined.

These six initiatives are intended to be plementary to the work currently under way in the working groups. But as these initiatives get underway, we envision that there will be llaboration, as appropriate and if required, between the spec working groups and the initiatives working groups. In fact, some of the deliverables provided by these initiatives will ultimately be supportive of the efforts in the working groups.

6. Preserve. Promote. Participate. discusses how the initiatives will lay the groundwork for the future challenges that face XBRL, including “changing markets, current trends, evolving standards, and emerging technologies.” With these challenges in mind, how will the initiatives enable XBRL to reach its full potential in the years ahead?

As a standard grows and bees more widely adopted, there are ever-greater challenges and demands placed on that standard. Innovative use cases and new interoperability issues tend to e to the fore. For a standard to meet these challenges, it must have the proper foundations to adapt to the demands presented by such forces.

Initiatives like the abstract modeling effort can provide the proper engineering artifacts to enable a methodical and careful evolution of the standard. For example, as newer technologies emerge and are evaluated for their ability to add value to the XBRL standard, the abstract model uld play a key role as a tool for munication, not only for understanding the impact that a new technology may have on XBRL, but also how XBRL itself might impact the design and evolution of that new technology.

Another theme that stands out across the six initiatives is an attempt to make things more modularized; this is apparent, for example, in the initiative to reanize the specification and in the initiative to define application profiles. With a proper level of modularization in place, the specification will tend to be more manageable, change can be more isolated, and XBRL will ultimately prove to be more flexible and adaptable. These are important characteristics to establish now so that XBRL is well-positioned to respond to future challenges and demands.

7. What skills and experience are you looking for in volunteers? What are the main job titles? Must volunteers have extensive experience in XBRL?

The skill set that we are looking for is quite diverse, and in Preserve. Promote. Participate., the XSB has identified specific skills on a per-initiative basis. If you were to look across the entire cross-section of required skill sets, you’d find that there is a need for everyone from academics to XML technologists.

Volunteers need not feel that having a deep knowledge of XBRL is an essential pre-requi to ntribute. In fact, the XSB would like to see broad participation from the munity since a wider perspective is crucial to ensuring that the XBRL standard is flexible enough to meet the needs of all in the munity.

8. What can XBRL stakeholders do now to learn how they can ntribute? How can individuals and anizations support these strategic initiatives?

The XSB is currently aepting volunteers and support through two channels: (1) volunteers and supporting anizations can plete the registration form in Appendix A of the document and email it to volunteers@xbrl. or (2) they can go online and plete the same registration form at .

The abstract modeling initiative is the one initiative for which XII is actively recruiting volunteers, so we would like to especially invite all who have an interest in that initiative to register their interest with XII. It will be an exciting project, and we look forward to working with all those that respond.