A Transaction-oriented architecture for enterprise systems

Many enterprises risk business transactions based on information systems that are incomplete or misleading, given that 80-85% of all corporate information remains outside of their processing scope. It highlights that the bulk of information is too unstructured for these systems to process, but must be taken into account if those systems are to provide effective support. Computer technology nonetheless continues to become more and more predominant, illustrated by SAP A.G. recognising that 65-70% of the world's transactions are run using their technology. Using SAP as an illustrative case study, and by bringing in the benefits of technologies such as Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Business Process Management (BPM), Enterprise Architecture Frameworks (EA) and Conceptual Structures, a practical roadmap is identified to a Transaction-Oriented Architecture (TOA) that is predicated on the Transaction Concept. This concept builds upon the Resources-Events-Agents (REA) modelling pattern that is close to business reality. Enterprise systems can thus better incorporate that missing 80-85% of hitherto too-unstructured information thereby allowing enterprise systems vendors such as SAP, their competitors, customers, suppliers and partners to do an ever better job with the world's transactions

A transaction-oriented architecture for structuring unstructured information in enterprise applications

As 80-85% of all corporate information remains unstructured, outside of the processing scope of enterprise systems, many enterprises rely on Information Systems that cause them to risk transactions that are based on lack of information (errors of omission) or misleading information (errors of commission). To address this concern, the fundamental business concept of monetary transactions is extended to include qualitative business concepts. A Transaction Concept (TC) is accordingly identified that provides a structure for these unstructured but vital aspects of business transactions. Based on REA (Resources, Events, Agents) and modelled using Conceptual Graphs (CGs) and Formal Concept Analysis (FCA), the TC provides businesses with a more balanced view of the transactions they engage in and a means of discovering new transactions that they might have otherwise missed. A simple example is provided that illustrates this integration and reveals a key missing element. This example is supported by reference to a wide range of case studies and application areas that demonstrate the added value of the TC. The TC is then advanced into a Transaction-Oriented Architecture (TOA). The TOA provides the framework by which an enterprise’s business processes are orchestrated according to the TC. TOA thus brings Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and the productivity of enterprise applications to the height of the real, transactional world that enterprises actually operate in.</jats:p

(I) A Declarative Framework for ERP Systems(II) Reactors: A Data-Driven Programming Model for Distributed Applications

To those who can be swayed by argument and those who know they do not have all the answers This dissertation is a collection of six adapted research papers pertaining to two areas of research. (I) A Declarative Framework for ERP Systems: • POETS: Process-Oriented Event-driven Transaction Systems. The paper describes an ontological analysis of a small segment of the enterprise domain, namely the general ledger and accounts receivable. The result is an event-based approach to designing ERP systems and an abstract-level sketch of the architecture. • Compositional Specification of Commercial Contracts. The paper de-scribes the design, multiple semantics, and use of a domain-specific lan-guage (DSL) for modeling commercial contracts. • SMAWL: A SMAll Workflow Language Based on CCS. The paper show

The impact of conceptual structures on transaction and enterprise architecture practices

This research hypothesises is Conceptual Structures using the Resource Event Agent (REA) ontology adds value when defining a Transaction Oriented Architecture (TOA) for Enterprise Systems. Enterprise Systems drive global economic growth through well-designed implementations that provide organisations with multiple benefits, including streamlined business processes, increased efficiencies, improved productivity and decreased costs. Conversely, poorly implemented Enterprise Systems can lead to poor operating results. Most Enterprise Systems still use traditional methods of storing economic data mirroring the double-entry bookkeeping system, which can cause several problems, including data loss and repetition. Enterprise Systems must capture transaction data in a format available to multiple business processes to fulfil their goals. This thesis provides an overview of the currently available frameworks for Enterprise Architecture design. It details the problems that are observed and experienced during the completion of real-world Enterprise System development projects. The basis of the Transaction Concept is then presented as the general solution, leading to a TOA for Enterprise Systems. The Transaction Pyramid describes TOA through three layers of transactions: Enterprise, Business, and Database. The Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) is used as the primary research methodology to provide a framework to this research. Together with the secondary research method of Action Research to provide a more granular basis for DSRM Step 3 : "Design and development", which required multiple minor iterations of the cyclical process of Action Research to produce the required artefacts. The case study approach is used also as a secondary research method for empirical inquiry and investigation required for DSRM step 4: "Demonstration". A Knowledge Management System is defined to validate TOA, and artefacts are implemented for an Automated REA (AREA) based on Protégé Frames to underpin TOA as a Proof of Concept. AREA provides a fully- edged, TOA design tool for Enterprise Architecture using the REA ontology. AREA's Knowledge Repository uses Conceptual Structures through a) the ISO Common Logic standard's Conceptual Graph Interchange Format (CGIF) to store and transmit the TOA using an REA ontology, and b) Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) for validation. AREA is then demonstrated and evaluated using two industrial case studies as exemplars. These Findings support the research's hypothesis and its contribution to knowledge

Component Based System Framework for Dynamic B2B Interaction

Business-to-business (B2B) collaboration is becoming a pivotal way to bring today's enterprises to success in the dynamically changing, e-business environment. Though many business-to-business protocols are developed to support B2B interaction, none are generally accepted. A B2B system should support different B2B protocols dynamically to enable interaction between diverse enterprises. This paper proposes a framework for dynamic B2B interaction. A B2B transaction is divided into the interaction part and business implementation part to support flexible interaction. A component based system framework is proposed,to support the B2B transaction execution. To support. dynamic B2B services, dynamic component composition is required. Service and component notions are combined into a composable service component. The composition architecture is also presented

Towards an aspect weaving BPEL engine

This position paper proposes the use of dynamic aspects and the visitor design pattern to obtain a highly configurable and extensible BPEL engine. Using these two techniques, the core of this infrastructural software can be customised to meet new requirements and add features such as debugging, execution monitoring, or changing to another Web Service selection policy. Additionally, it can easily be extended to cope with customer-specific BPEL extensions. We propose the use of dynamic aspects not only on the engine itself but also on the workflow in order to tackle the problems of Web Service hot deployment and hot fixes to long running processes. In this way, composing aWeb Service "on-the-fly" means weaving its choreography interface into the workflow