Principle 1: Change control.
Statement: LIM has change control and the following principles for designing LIM apply to every revision of LIM.
Principle 2: Backwards compatibility
Statement: LIM should provide maximum backwards compatibility.
Principle 3: Support for statistical services
Statement: LIM supports the design, development, production, maintenance and reuse of statistical services.
Principle 4: Common language
Statement: LIM provides a basis for a common understanding of information objects and the implementation of CSPA services
Principle 5: Appropriate communication
Statement: LIM must use appropriate communication for the target audience, in particular the language used in LIM must be precise and non-ambiguous.
Principle 6: Necessary level of detail
Statement: LIM contains a limited number of information objects for which the right balance between detail and abstraction should be used.
Principle 7: Robustness, adaptability and extensibility
Statement: LIM is robust, and can be easily adapted and extended to meet users' needs.
Principle 8: Optimal reuse
Statement: LIM makes optimal reuse of existing terms and definitions.
Principle 9: Platform independence
Statement: LIM does not refer to any specific IT setting or tool.