1. OsEra Open Source eGovernment Reference Architecture
Approach to Semantic Interoperability
Cory Casanave, President
Data Access Technologies, Inc.

2. Semantically grounded Executable Architectures
OsEra Overview
What MDA brings – Executable Architectures providing Business Driven Interoperable Components
What the Semantic Web Brings –Interoperability between independent architectures
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

3. Caveat
OsEra and the Semantic Core is work in progress, not a ready to use capability

4. OsEra Stack Tool Integration Architecture Modeling Model Repository
Capture existing information and integrate with choice of tools
Provide tools for the entire integrated life cycle
Tool Integration
Architecture Modeling
This is planned but not the current focus
Manage models and information from diverse sources across projects and communities
System
Architect
Component-X
Objectives
Information
UML
Process
Eclipse
Rules
Model Repository
Integrate diverse information into a coherent enterprise view
FEA
EDOC
FEA with real time metrics
Semantics
Core
UML
Import/Export external information and produce documentation and technical artifacts.
Provisioning
Eclipse is an open source “IDE”
Eclipse
Environment
Transformations
Import/Export
Model->Integrate
Runtime capabilities for deployment and integration of application components
Publish and Integrate enterprise intellectual capital on the web
Enterprise Service Bus
Semantic Web
BPEL
Processes
jBoss
Application
Server
Architecture
Publishing
Model
Integration
Policy
RDF & OWL
Web
Services
Inference
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

5. Using MDA and SOA from models to Solutions
Model to Integrate
Using MDA and SOA
from models
to Solutions

6. Simulated Model Driven Architecture
Enterprise
Architecture
Model
(PIM)
Refine/Iterate
Business
Architecture
Live Process Simulation
Simulator
Cory
Semantic Core
Meta Model
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

7. Automated Model Driven Architecture
Enterprise
Architecture
Model (CIM)
Manual
Coding
Business
Architecture
Enterprise
Components
Infrastructure
Mapping
(E.G. J2EE-WS)
Tools
Produce &
Integrate C
Minimize and structure
manual implementation
Framework &
Infrastructure
(E.G. -J2EE-WS)
PSM
Technical
Architecture
Mapping is tuned
to the infrastructure
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

8. SOA Architecture Modeling
Standards Based
OMG “Enterprise Collaboration Architecture”
Models Collaborative Business Processes
Link between business and SOA
“Drills down” to SOA interfaces
Provides the context for services
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

9. Collaborative Process Model
Enterprise Role. A major area of functional responsibility within the discipline of financial management.
Work Role. A role responsible for a specific functional area within an enterprise role, such as might be assigned to a single worker or supported by an IT system.
Activity. A specification of a business function in carried out the context of a work role.
Subactivity. A specification a subfunction within necessary to carry out an activity.
Protocol. A defined conversation between two roles that may be extended over time. One role initiates and the other responds to the protocol, but information may flow both ways across the protocol.
Information Flow. An individual flow of information across a protocol or into or out of an activity.
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

10. Example Work Roles January 2006
Enterprise role (within the Financial Management discipline)
Enterprise business service
Inter-work role protocol
Work Role
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

11. Receivables Management Activities
Related to Customer Orders
Related to Receivables
January 2006
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12. Information Model Example
A term in the vocabulary represents a class of things to be described.
Entities may be described as having a unique identity.
A relation between terms is described by an association between classes.
Attributes specify descriptive information having simple types.
An un-shaded class is further detailed on a different diagram.
This means “zero or more”
A class may be specialized into sub-classifications.
This indicates a compositional (as opposed to referential) association.
This means “one or more”
This is a constraint that defines the sub-classification.
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

13. Enterprise Service Bus to Enable Target State
Services driven from the business model
Reusable Enterprise Services are independent & easily adapted and interconnected
Services communicate with each other like humans do with
Information systems become a lattice of cooperating components providing services
SOA/Enterprise Service Bus using commercial standards
Industry best practice to avoid developing large monolithic applications
One-GSA Business Model
Project
Management
Service
Contracting
Service
Tom or Cory
Enterprise Services
Funds
Management
Service
Solution
Provider
Service
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

14. Platform Specific Model
Platform Independent Model (PIM)
Platform Specific Model (PSM)
Core Financial System Specification
Service Interfaces
Enterprise Components
Work Components
Service Manager Components
Behavioral Specifications
Data Model
Message Specifications
Data Manager Components
Persistent Data Specifications
Core Financial System Implementation
Web Services
Enterprise Information Systems
System Components
System Functions
Data Definition
XML Schemas
Data Bases
Data Base Schemas
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

15. Example of XML provisioned from model
Note; Don’t have to
really read this!
<CustomerOrderEstablishment>
<Inter-Work-RoleTransaction>
<inter-work-roleTransactionID> … </inter-work-roleTransactionID> …
</Inter-Work-RoleTransaction>
<newOrder>
<orderingCustomer>
<customerID> … </customerID>
</orderingCustomer>
<controllingSalesInstrument>
<salesInstrumentId> … </salesInstrumentId>
</controllingSalesInstrument>
<customerOrderAmount> … </customerOrderAmount>
<lineItems>
</lineItems>
</newOrder>
</CustomerOrderEstablishment>
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

16. Example Transaction Message XML Document
<CustomerOrderEstablishment>
<customerOrderEstablishment>
<newOrder>
<customerOrder>
<customerOrderID> … </customerOrderID>
<customerOrderAmount> … </customerOrderAmount>
<orderingCustomer>
<customer>
<customerID> … </customerID>
</customer>
<party>
<name> … </name>
</party>
</orderingCustomer>
<controllingSalesInstrument>
<salesInstrumentID> … </salesInstrumentID>
</controllingSalesInstrument> …
<lineItems>
</lineItems>
</customerOrder>
</newOrder>
</customerOrderEstablishment>
<businessDomainTransaction>
<transactionID> … </transactionID>
</businessDomainTransaction>
</CustomerOrderEstablishment>
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

17. Example Web Services Definition
<wsdl:portType name="CustomerOrderEstablishment.CustomerOrderEstablishment">
<wsdl:operation name="CustomerOrderEstablishment">
<wsdl:input message="tns:CustomerOrderEstablishmentPanopticInheritanceCluster“
name="CustomerOrderEstablishment">
</wsdl:input>
</wsdl:operation>
</wsdl:portType>
<wsdl:portType name="CustomerOrderEstablishment.CustomerOrderEstablishmentCallback">
<wsdl:operation name="CustomerOrderEstablished">
<wsdl:input message="tns:CustomerOrderEstablishedPanopticInheritanceCluster“
name="CustomerOrderEstablished">
<wsdl:operation name="CustomerOrderEstablishmentRejected">
<wsdl:input message="tns:CustomerOrderEstablishmentRejectedInheritance“
name="CustomerOrderEstablishmentRejected">
The primary port type has operations corresponding to the request flows in the protocol.
The callback port type has operations corresponding to the response flows in the protocol.
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

18. Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.
What MDA Provides
Business-centric Enterprise Models of Collaborative Processes, Information and Rules
That are refined to produce SOA based component specifications – independent of middleware and implementation technologies
Enabling model-based acquisition, FEA support, simulation and execution
Facilitating Automated Development of Services and Implementations
Providing for interoperable components that integrate new and legacy capabilities
MDA provides an Architected Solution to interoperability
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

19. Semantic Core

20. What is the Semantic Core?
The semantic core integrates the concepts of architecture as expressed in multiple languages such as UML, OWL, FEA, BPM, EDOC, XML, Requirements, Etc.
This provides for a unification of the intellectual capital used to specify
Organizations
Systems
Information
Interfaces
Processes
… Anything we architect
Making the organizations, processes and systems more agile and interoperable
Providing for the integration of independently developed architectures
Or the integration of intellectual capital
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

21. Driver: Interoperability
Interoperability of information and interfaces is a primary driver today. The cost and agility advantages are established, the issues known. We must enable a solution to these problems.
Semantic core provides a missing link for enabling interoperability, this is our driving requirement.
Adaptation of similar information and interfaces across organizations, processes, and systems.
Semantic Core combined with the capabilities of service oriented and model driven architectures provides a capability for wide scale, net centric interoperability.
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

22. Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.
The Basics
Problems to be solved
Interoperability of organizations and technology
Collaboration
Architected business information and processes
Agile solutions based on the architectures
Fully integrated life-cycle approach supporting the FEA
The Approach
Architecture models grounded in an open and extensible semantic framework
Model Driven Architecture to generate technology components
Service Oriented Architecture as the infrastructure
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

23. “Meta” Integration Problem
Too many ways to talk about the same thing, redundant and conflicting semantics.
Architectural
Environment
Language
UML Class
Diagram
Language
SAML
Class
Diagram
Security
Specification
System
Business or
Technical
Database
Schema
Language ER
Language
Activity
Diagram
Activites
Web Service
Specification
SOA
Collaboration
Language
EDOC
Language
WSDL
Ontology
Requirements
EJB Ear
Specification
Key
Uses
Defines
Artifact
Language
Excel
Language
EJB Descriptor
Language
OWL
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

24. How this Effects Government
Contractors, using different and incompatible tools
Generate different architectures about the same things
That then need to be aligned – but are never maintained
Each project becomes an island, without reuse or interoperability
The resultant complexity is expensive, and anti-agile
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

25. Adapting Systems with OsEra
UML
XML
Semantic Core
Described in
Described in
Purchasing
System
Described in
Invoicing
System
Commerce
Ontology
J2EE
Microsoft .NET
Provision
Adapter
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

26. Integration Via Semantic Hubs
Dis-Integrated
Information Is
Mapped
Common
Concepts
Semantic
Hub
Ways To
Specify
Things
Semantic
Core
Joint
Behavior
Part Of
Describes
UML
XML
Concepts We
Specify
Part Of
Buy
Monetary
Trade
Reference
Ontologies
Purchase
Library of common concepts
Can grow over time
Mapping
is not
“one-one”
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

27. “Views” of Integrated Information
Ontologies
UML
DoDAF
OsEra
FEA
BPMN
Requirements
Semantic Core
EDOC
XML
OWL
SQL
Provision
Web Services
Java/J2EE
Workflow
Documentation
Components
BPEL
E/R Models
Security
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

28. Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.
Semantic Components
Semantic Core
UML Concepts
OWL Concepts
Semantic
Component
Semantic
Component
Semantic
Component
Semantic
Component
Semantic
Component
Semantic
Component
Semantic
Component
XML Concepts
Semantic
Component
Semantic
Component
Semantic
Component
Semantic
Component
Semantic
Component
Semantic
Component
Semantic
Component
Semantic
Component
Library of component concepts
Growing based on need
Modular, not monolithic
A construction set for languages
A lattice of interoperable concepts
Semantic
Component
Semantic
Component
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

29. Interoperability of Systems
System A
System B
System C
System D
Shared
Context
Shared
Context
Hub
Context
System of Systems
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

30. Unifying Intellectual Capital
Business
Process
(BPMN)
System
Architecture
(UML)
XML
Vocabulary
OsEra
Process
Model
Document
Model
Component
Model
Order PO
OR_ST_05
Human/Automated
Integration
Unified
Architecture
Reference Ontology
Order Concept
Order
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

31. Ontological Grounding
Grounding our common concepts in Ontologies has multiple advantages
We can add “axioms” that help to more concretely define the concepts
Ontology tools can use this information to bridge like terms for the same concept or similar concepts
Other ontology aware components can assist architects in “grounding” their models
Adaptation components can help build “adapters” between different interfaces and information stores
Inconsistencies can be identified and resolve early
As ontologies advance, additional capabilities can be added
We can connect Ontological “hubs” – not requiring “one true solution”
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

32. Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.
Example Workflow
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

33. Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.
Joining the “Stacks”
Modeling & Architecture “Stack”
UML
Model Driven Architecture
Meta Object Facility
Business Process
Semantic Web & Ontology “Stack”
RDF
OWL
Current Project – MOF to RDF
Makes ANY MOF compliant model (UML, EDOC, E/R, Etc) an OWL Ontology
Provides foundation for grounding models
Reduces the gaps between the camps
Allows models to be published as semantic web ontology resources
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

34. Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.
Summary
Semantic integration and interoperability requires
A Business driven approach
Intellectual capital contained in semantically grounded models
Provisioning to technology infrastructures
Tooling and automation
Standards
An approach for executing architected solutions – MDA
An approach to integrate architectures – Semantically Grounded Architectures & Semantic Core
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.

35. Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.
Resources
OsEra
Data Access Technologies, Inc
Cory Casanave
Cory-c (at) enterprisecomponent.com
OMG Model Driven Architecture
January 2006
Copyright © 2006 Data Access Technologies, Inc.