Ontology-based patterns for the integration of business processes and enterprise application architectures

Increasingly, enterprises are using Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) as an approach to Enterprise Application Integration (EAI). SOA has the potential to bridge the gap between business and technology and to improve the reuse of existing applications and the interoperability with new ones. In addition to service architecture descriptions, architecture abstractions like patterns and styles capture design knowledge and allow the reuse of successfully applied designs, thus improving the quality of software. Knowledge gained from integration projects can be captured to build a repository of semantically enriched, experience-based solutions. Business patterns identify the interaction and structure between users, business processes, and data. Specific integration and composition patterns at a more technical level address enterprise application integration and capture reliable architecture solutions. We use an ontology-based approach to capture architecture and process patterns. Ontology techniques for pattern definition, extension and composition are developed and their applicability in business process-driven application integration is demonstrated

Ontological support for the evolution of future services oriented architectures

Services Oriented Architectures (SOA) have emerged as a useful framework for developing interoperable, large-scale systems, typically implemented using the Web Services (WS) standards. However, the maintenance and evolution of SOA systems present many challenges. SmartLife applications are intelligent user-centered systems and a special class of SOA systems that present even greater challenges for a software maintainer. Ontologies and ontological modeling can be used to support the evolution of SOA systems. This paper describes the development of a SOA evolution ontology and its use to develop an ontological model of a SOA system. The ontology is based on a standard SOA ontology. The ontological model can be used to provide semantic and visual support for software maintainers during routine maintenance tasks. We discuss a case study to illustrate this approach, as well as the strengths and limitations

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Model-Driven Methodology for Rapid Deployment of Smart Spaces based on Resource-Oriented Architectures

Advances in electronics nowadays facilitate the design of smart spaces based on physical mash-ups of sensor and actuator devices. At the same time, software paradigms such as Internet of Things (IoT) and Web of Things (WoT) are motivating the creation of technology to support the development and deployment of web-enabled embedded sensor and actuator devices with two major objectives: (i) to integrate sensing and actuating functionalities into everyday objects, and (ii) to easily allow a diversity of devices to plug into the Internet. Currently, developers who are applying this Internet-oriented approach need to have solid understanding about specific platforms and web technologies. In order to alleviate this development process, this research proposes a Resource-Oriented and Ontology-Driven Development (ROOD) methodology based on the Model Driven Architecture (MDA). This methodology aims at enabling the development of smart spaces through a set of modeling tools and semantic technologies that support the definition of the smart space and the automatic generation of code at hardware level. ROOD feasibility is demonstrated by building an adaptive health monitoring service for a Smart Gym

Lifecycle-Support in Architectures for Ontology-Based Information Systems

Ontology-based applications play an increasingly important role in the public and corporate Semantic Web. While today there exist a range of tools and technologies to support specific ontology engineering and management activities, architectural design guidelines for building ontology-based applications are missing. In this paper, we present an architecture for ontology-based applications—covering the complete ontology-lifecycle—that is intended to support software engineers in designing and developing ontology based-applications. We illustrate the use of the architecture in a concrete case study using the NeOn toolkit as one implementation of the architecture

An Exploration of Enterprise Architecture Research

Management of the enterprise architecture has become increasingly recognized as a crucial part of both business and IT management. Still, a common understanding and methodological consistency seems far from being developed. Acknowledging the significant role of research in moving the development process along, this article employs different bibliometric methods, complemented by an extensive qualitative interpretation of the research field, to provide a unique overview of the enterprise architecture literature. After answering our research questions about the collaboration via co-authorships, the intellectual structure of the research field and its most influential works, and the principal themes of research, we propose an agenda for future research based on the findings from the above analyses and their comparison to empirical insights from the literature. In particular, our study finds a considerable degree of co-authorship clustering and a positive impact of the extent of co-authorship on the diffusion of works on enterprise architecture. In addition, this article identifies three major research streams and shows that research to date has revolved around specific themes, while some of high practical relevance receive minor attention. Hence, the contribution of our study is manifold and offers support for researchers and practitioners alike

Graphical Database Architecture For Clinical Trials

The general area of the research is Health Informatics. The research focuses on creating an innovative and novel solution to manage and analyze clinical trials data. It constructs a Graphical Database Architecture (GDA) for Clinical Trials (CT) using New Technology for Java (Neo4j) as a robust, a scalable and a high-performance database. The purpose of the research project is to develop concepts and techniques based on architecture to accelerate the processing time of clinical data navigation at lower cost. The research design uses a positivist approach to empirical research. The research is significant because it proposes a new approach of clinical trials through graph theory and designs a responsive structure of clinical data that can be deployed across all the health informatics landscape. It uniquely contributes to scholarly literature of the phenomena of Not only SQL (NoSQL) graph databases, mainly Neo4j in CT, for future research of clinical informatics. A prototype is created and examined to validate the concepts, taking advantage of Neo4j’s high availability, scalability, and powerful graph query language (Cypher). This research study finds that integration of search methodologies and information retrieval with the graphical database provides a solid starting point to manage, query, and analyze the clinical trials data, furthermore the design and the development of a prototype demonstrate the conceptual model of this study. Likewise the proposed clinical trials ontology (CTO) incorporates all data elements of a standard clinical study which facilitate a heuristic overview of treatments, interventions, and outcome results of these studies

Comparing Enterprise Architecture Frameworks – A Case Study at the Estonian Rescue Board

Igal organisatsioonil on strateegilised eesmärgid, mida ta soovib saavutada. Ilma tervikliku arhitektuurita, mis kombineerib kõik erinevad elemendid - äriprotsessid, infosüsteemid, andmevood ja platvormid -, ei saa olla kindel, kas või kuidas viivad investeeringud eemärkide täitmisele. Kuna ühegi Eesti riigiasutuse kohta ei ole teadaolevalt selleteemalist uurimust tehtud, valiti selles magistritöös juhtumiuuringu näiteks Päästeamet. Magistritöös antakse esmalt süstemaatiline ülevaade erialasest kirjandusest eesmärgiga leida sobivad organisatsiooni arhitektuuri raamistikud ning kriteeriumid raamistike võrdleva analüüsi läbiviimiseks ja edasiseks hindamiseks Päästeameti näitel. Valitud allikate põhjal vastatakse uurimisküsimustele. See aitas tuvastada seitse ettevõtte arhitektuuri raamistikku, mida hinnati ja jättis alles kolm raamistikku edasiseks rakendamiseks: The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF), The Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF), Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). Seejärel modelleeritakse juhtumiuuringus erinevaid raamistikke kasutades detailselt 2-3 teenust ning viiakse kirjanduse ülevaates kirjeldatud kriteeriumite abil läbi hindamine ja arutelu Päästeameti töötajatega. Juhtumiuuring ja kohapealne kohtumine päästeametis seadsid ettevõtte organisatsioonide arendamiseks organisatsiooni arhitektuuri raamistikud jaoks kõige olulisemad kaks peamist asjaolu: organiseerida arhitektuur seisukohtadesse, mis on organisatsiooni infoküsimuste struktuuri alamhulk ja mõista, kuidas organisatsiooni eesmärgid on toetatud. Töö tulemus on heaks aluseks organisatsiooni arhitektuuri edasisele arendamisele Päästeametis ja teistes Eesti riigiasutustes.Every organisation has strategic goals it wants to achieve, and if it does not have an architecture combining all different elements such as business processes, enabling information systems, data flows and platforms, it will not be sure which investments will lead to achieving which objectives. Since there has not been any research like this performed for Estonian Government Organisations, the Estonian Rescue Board is taken as an example for conducting a case study. A systematic literature review is performed, for identifying Enterprise Architecture Frameworks, criteria for performing a comparative analysis of the framework as well as for the further evaluation at the Estonian Rescue Board. The identified final papers are analysed in order to answer the Research Questions (RQ). This helped to identify seven Enterprise Architecture Frameworks, which were evaluated and left only three frameworks for further implementation: The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF), The Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF), Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). In the case study, the selected frameworks are modelled, showing 2 or 3 services in details, with further evaluation and discussion of them during the meeting at the Rescue Board, following the criteria, which are described in the literature review. Case study and on-site meeting at the Rescue Board set two main things to be the most vital while developing Enterprise Architecture Framework in the organisation: organising architecture into views that are subsets of the organisation information architecture and understanding how the goals in the organisation are supported. This can be a good backbone for further developing Enterprise Architecture in the Rescue Board, and other Estonian Government Organisations in general

Enterprise modelling framework for dynamic and complex business environment: socio-technical systems perspective

The modern business environment is characterised by dynamism and ambiguity. The causes include global economic change, rapid change requirements, shortened development life cycles and the increasing complexity of information technology and information systems (IT/IS). However, enterprises have been seen as socio-technical systems. The dynamic complex business environment cannot be understood without intensive modelling and simulation. Nevertheless, there is no single description of reality, which has been seen as relative to its context and point of view. Human perception is considered an important determinant for the subjectivist view of reality. Many scholars working in the socio-technical systems and enterprise modelling domains have conceived the holistic sociotechnical systems analysis and design possible using a limited number of procedural and modelling approaches. For instance, the ETHICS and Human-centred design approaches of socio-technical analysis and design, goal-oriented and process-oriented modelling of enterprise modelling perspectives, and the Zachman and DoDAF enterprise architecture frameworks all have limitations that can be improved upon, which have been significantly explained in this thesis. [Continues.