SIE.5:1 - Problem Frame

Use this when an integration needs to decide whether records or identifiers from different sources concern the same entity, a part, a version, a variant, an alternate description, a family, or different or unresolved entities. The recognizable failure is a join, merged key, or sameAs assertion that makes identifiers appear unified while erasing their issuers, grains, intervals, and authority.

The primary EntityOfConcern is one bounded cross-source identity question for a named use. The first move is to state the entity grain and time or effectivity interval at which sameness matters. The first result is a disposition that downstream work can inspect and challenge without replacing source identifiers or master-data authority.

The payoff is that the integration can join only warranted cases, return exact unresolved branches, and preserve source trace. Do not use SIE.5 to create identifiers, choose enterprise master identity or survivorship, decide authoritative values, or prove a source claim true. Those decisions remain with identifier owners, MDM, or the direct domain authority.