Achieving Justice Information Interoperability The Justice Reference Architecture: A Global Project

What the JRA is Based on Service orientation Based on open standards Supports implementation interoperability Supports state and local justice agency exchanges Partnership of government practitioners and industry vendors

The Usual Business Justifications Do it quicker. Do it cheaper. Do it better. Increase business flexibility

Motivations to Share Information Core justice business needs (ongoing) Terrorist attacks—September 11, 2001 Natural disasters—Hurricane Katrina (2005) Pandemics—Avian Flu (????) What next??? It is hard to predict future information sharing needs, so flexibility is critical

Barriers to Interoperability (1) It is very difficult to even hold a conversation about interoperability unless there is a common vocabulary for reference architectures The OASIS SOA Reference Model (SOA RM)—a choice rapidly gaining traction in the vendor community Tested the SOA RM concepts with several other domains and expanded it as a conceptual reference architecture.

The Moving Parts United States Department of Justice

Barriers to Interoperability (2) Information Model Issues Data and document models (concepts, definitions, schema) Document model (domain model, schema) Service Model Issues Core (enterprise) or shared Line of business Individual agency

Barriers to Interoperability (3) Services Issues (consistent definitions and interfaces) Repository Issues Standards-based interfaces Support for federation Standard metadata for types of services Service Interaction Requirement (messaging) Issues Consistent requirements across service interaction profiles (security, privacy, etc.) Consistent requirements by service

Barriers to Interoperability (4) Service Interaction Profile (messaging) Issues Standards-based profiles Compatible profiles Special Service (intermediary) Issues Routing and orchestration Transformations Validation

Barriers to Interoperability (5) Policy/Agreement/Contract Issues Consistent business rules (privacy, security, etc.) Consistent service level agreements Governance Issues Agreement on reference standards Process for maintenance and versions Execution Context (implementation) Issues Network roll-ups, simplified business rules, etc.

What is Needed? Something complementary to both the federal, NASCIO, and agency enterprise architectures An implementation reference architecture for information sharing Partly generic standards for information sharing Partly standards specific to a domain

The Modular Pieces Information Model Interchangeable vocabularies (GJXDM, EDXL > NIEM) and reference exchange schemas Composable components to create new exchange schemas quickly and easily Service Interaction Profiles (messaging) Interchangeable profiles like Web services, MQ, wireless, etc. Composable micro-services to create new services quickly and easily

The Generic Solutions A Reference Model Provides a common language to talk about different implementation architectures (the concept of a kitchen) A Conceptual Reference Architecture Provides common concepts for mapping across different implementation architectures (a generic kitchen) A Domain Reference Architecture Provides an actual set of implementation standards that enables interoperability (a specific kitchen design)

What Is Reusable Across Domains? Information Model Core components like name and address (NIEM) Service Interaction Requirements (messaging) Some requirements definitions Service Interaction Profiles (messaging) Some profiles (at least partially) Some specific technical solutions—Web services, MQ, wireless (maybe)

What Needs to Behave Nicely? Repositories (federation, shared architectural components—data, services, etc.) Identification Mechanisms (compatible security, access) Security and Privacy (business rules, security controls, role codes, and data category)

Hot off the Press JRA specification 1.0 out very soon. First service interaction profiles in 0.7 draft (web services, JMS, ebXML, MQ Series, first wireless). Formal efforts to coordinate with DOJ architecture (LEISP, NIEM, etc.). Encouraging conversations with DHS and DNI (ISE). Initial conversations with HealthIT, EPA, and others.