Describe business scope
Use Business Domains for broad areas of work. Open the linked Service Domains when you need a more specific capability boundary.
Using OpenIM
Use OpenIM as a common reference
OpenIM gives teams a shared vocabulary for an institutional investment firm. Use the website during architecture and product work. Generated exports support data analysis and tooling.
Start with the question you need to answer
Compare system coverage
Map a platform or service to the capabilities it supports and the entities it uses. The gaps and overlaps then have stable names.
Shape a data model
Use the canonical entities as reference concepts. Add firm-specific detail and implementation choices in your own design.
Prepare machine-readable context
Use the ontology or property-graph exports when software needs named relationships that it can follow directly.
Work from a pinned release
Record the OpenIM release or commit that your work uses. A pinned reference keeps reviews and generated exports traceable to the same source. It also gives later updates a clear baseline.
Review the model pages before adopting a term. The definitions and relationships provide the meaning; a label on its own can be ambiguous.
Apply it to your firm
OpenIM supplies a common starting point. Each firm still decides ownership, controls, processes, products, jurisdictions and system design.
If your use case exposes a missing concept or an incorrect relationship, record the example and propose a change through the public contribution process.