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The execution data model (ExecutionDM) is a data model for describing the execution of computational tasks. It is designed to be used in the context of the Virtual Observatory (VO) and is based on the VO-DML modelling language.

It has been influenced by other IVOA activities such as UWS (which itself was an interface extracted from part of AstroGrid's Common Execution Architecture. Recently the IVOA has worked on the ExcutionBroker which is also the specification for describing the execution of computational tasks in a distributed environment.

The ExecutionDM and associated tools and services can take advantage in the widespread use of containerisation and orchestration technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes, which allow for the efficient and scalable execution of computational tasks in a distributed environment. It should be noted that these were not available when CEA and UWS were developed. The restriction to being "opinionated" about the containerisation has been inspired by OpenCADC Library Tools and the containerised "application" approach allows the execution to be decoupled from the underlying infrastructure. The project considers the functionality inside the container as a "black box" - the tools developed in this project are concerned only with the inputs and outputs of the "black box".

More details about the initial design motivations can be found in the requirements document.