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

Service architecture design for E-Businesses: A pattern-based approach

E-business involves the implementation of business processes over the Web. At a technical level, this imposes an application integration problem. In a wider sense, the integration of software and business levels across organisations becomes a significant challenge. Service architectures are an increasingly adopted architectural approach for solving Enterprise Applications Integration (EAI). The adoption of this new architectural paradigm requires adaptation or creation of novel methodologies and techniques to solve the integration problem. In this paper we present the pattern-based techniques supporting a methodological framework to design service architectures for EAI. The techniques are used for services identification, for transformation from business models to service architectures and for architecture modifications

Graph-based Pattern Matching and Discovery for Process-centric Service Architecture Design and Integration

Process automation and applications integration initiatives are often complex and involve significant resources in large organisations. The increasing adoption of service-based architectures to solve integration problems and the widely accepted practice of utilising patterns as a medium to reuse design knowledge motivated the definition of this work. In this work a pattern-based framework and techniques providing automation and structure to address the process and application integration problem are proposed. The framework is a layered architecture providing modelling and traceability support to different abstraction layers of the integration problem. To define new services - building blocks of the integration solution - the framework includes techniques to identify process patterns in concrete process models. Graphs and graph morphisms provide a formal basis to represent patterns and their relation to models. A family of graph-based algorithms support automation during matching and discovery of patterns in layered process service models. The framework and techniques are demonstrated in a case study. The algorithms implementing the pattern matching and discovery techniques are investigated through a set of experiments from an empirical evaluation. Observations from conducted interviews to practitioners provide suggestions to enhance the proposed techniques and direct future work regarding analysis tasks in process integration initiatives

Ontology-based composition and matching for dynamic cloud service coordination

Recent cross-organisational software service offerings, such as cloud computing, create higher integration needs. In particular, services are combined through brokers and mediators, solutions to allow individual services to collaborate and their interaction to be coordinated are required. The need to address dynamic management - caused by cloud and on-demand environments - can be addressed through service coordination based on ontology-based composition and matching techniques. Our solution to composition and matching utilises a service coordination space that acts as a passive infrastructure for collaboration where users submit requests that are then selected and taken on by providers. We discuss the information models and the coordination principles of such a collaboration environment in terms of an ontology and its underlying description logics. We provide ontology-based solutions for structural composition of descriptions and matching between requested and provided services

Pattern-based business-driven analysis and design of service architectures

Service architectures are an increasingly adopted architectural approach for solving the Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) problem originated by business process automation requirements. In previous work, we developed a methodological framework for the designing of service architectures for EAI. The framework is structured in a layered architecture called LABAS, and is distinguished by using architectural abstractions in different layers. This paper describes the pattern-based techniques used in LABAS for service identification, for transformation from business models to service architectures and for architecture modifications

Towards reuse of business processes patterns to design services.

Service Oriented Architecture is a promising architectural approach to solve the integration problem originated by business process integration and automation requirements. Defining the appropriate granularity and scope of services is a critical issue to allow their reuse. Architecture abstractions, such as patterns, are a medium to capture design knowledge and to allow the reuse of successful previous designs. The continual rise of abstraction in software engineering approaches have been a central driver of this work, placing the notion of patterns at business model level. In this paper we propose a set of pattern-based techniques to define the scope and granularity of services based on identified patterns in business process models. Graph-based pattern matching and pattern discovery are proposed to recommend the scope and granularity of services on process-centric description models. Matching of generalised patterns and hierarchical matching are discussed

Automatic business process pattern matching for enterprise services design.

Designing the adequate scope and granularity of services is critical for their effective reuse. Patterns at business process level are abstractions of common and reusable designs to operate businesses. Business Process (BP) patterns can capture expert process design knowledge and greatly benefit the design of new enterprise services by guiding the definition of their scope and granularity. Identifying pattern instances in real and large documented business processes is a challenging task, requiring the analysis of the structure, semantics and behaviour associated to process descriptions. In this paper1 we present a solution to identify BP patterns based on a graph matching mechanism. Structural and semantics aspects, including natural language processing, are addressed. The approach moves one step further to increase automation during the design of process-centric enterprise services. We demonstrate the approach, discuss its limitations, novelty and practical benefits by using a case study based on the National Revenue Agency case at SOPOSE08

Business model driven service architecture design for enterprise application integration

Increasingly, organisations are using Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) as an approach to Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), which is required for the automation of business processes. This paper presents an architecture development process for guiding the transition from business models to a service-based software architecture. The process is supported by business reference models and patterns. Firstly, the business processes models are enhanced with domain model elements, application architecture elements and business-level patterns. Afterwards, business reference models and patterns are exploited to identify software services and their dependencies. The subsequent activities are focused on the transformation of the enhanced business processes to a service-based architecture that solves the application integration problem

Towards pattern-based service identification

Service-Oriented Architecture is a promising architectural approach to solve the integration problem originated by business process integration and automation requirements. he identification of the adequate services for the service architecture solution is a critical issue. Architecture abstractions, such as patterns, can capture design knowledge and allow the reuse of successful applied designs. The continual rise of abstraction in software engineering approaches have been a central driver of this work, placing the notion of patterns at business domain level. In this paper we propose a set pattern-based techniques for service identification. Graph-based pattern matching and pattern discovery are proposed to recommend the scope and granularity of services on process-centric description models. Matching of generalised patterns and hierarchical matching are discussed