Issue #24 [August 07-August 11 2006]
Building in Harmony with Model Driven Enterprise: Demystify the Art of Enterprise Ecology
Enterprise ecology is a mystic thirst that drives every enterprise thought leader into diverse innovative directions. In this week’s column, discover the melodic art of enterprise ‘harmony’ interoperable through a powerful classification framework...
Introduction
Enterprise ecology is a mystic thirst that drives enterprise thought leaders into diverse innovative directions. Enterprise genetics is an evolving business requirement employing surrounding technology excellence. However, enterprise thought process is mostly biased in implementation of the theory of preventive art whereas cure is bottled in the secret art of root cause analysis. The enterprise life history aspect is more important than enterprise life cycle. The Enterprise life history is now more complicated than before and it is now very critical enterprise success factor that captures the enterprise life history aspect. Enterprise grammar has upgraded around the terminologies. “I AM” [Information around Modules] has been deprecated with “We ARE” [Wider Enterprise fueled by Abstracted Reusability Entity value chains]. Melodious enterprise has discovered the art of the enterprise ecology building in harmony with enterprise best practice stacks. In this week’s column, discover the melodic art of enterprise ‘harmony’ interoperable through a powerful classification framework.
Enterprise Life Cycle Refining Process
Enterprise integration project is one of the most common IT initiatives across top notch industry players. There are several major consulting players gaining currencies in this arena. However, there is no success formula to achieve enterprise integration success. According to several industry analyst reports, more than 85% enterprise projects fail to meet the strategic needs, which eventually deviates the critical path through different lengthy paths. As a result, the enterprise life cycle and poorly handled life history pave the failure patterns. Figure 1 shows an example of Critical Path Method and Critical Path Analysis procedure:
The only rescue operation is enterprise entity harmony, a journey through the Classify, Organize and Relate the Entities (CORE). Harmony is an enterprise classification framework that develops the E=MC2 powered enterprise. This unique harmony classification framework effectively classifies, organises and relates the enterprise entities that enable a smooth enterprise integration implementation using enterprise architecture framework. Harmony classification framework follows the Helix-Spindle refining approach to follow the success path that takes the shortest route to reach critical path points.
Why do we Choose the Name Harmony?
Various enterprise architecture frameworks and classification frameworks exist in the enterprise field. These frameworks are most biased in specific aspects and cover very limited aspects of actual enterprise integration efforts. On the other hand, these frameworks are diversified instead of being integrated together. This lack of harmony hinders the benefits of enormous opportunities and awakens the enterprise industry with a foggy morning. The auspicious birth of different technology innovations make the situation more complicated. It also aids in coining new buzzwords and hypes that eventually instigate a new trend of, which I call ‘Chain of accidents,’ generating a new formula ‘Enterprise’ + Buzzword + ‘Architecture’; for example, enterprise SOA, enterprise MDA, enterprise ESB architecture and so on. That is in a real shame because technology innovation should be an integral part of the enterprise architecture framework. Unfortunately, this is not the case for almost all the available frameworks, helping one type of opportunistic group to gain a significant amount of currency. Therefore, our sincere effort is to show a roadmap that effectively leads us towards the enterprise service bus or service oriented enterprise, or any other yet to be discovered emerging technology destination.
“Harmony is the use and study of pitch simultaneity and chords, actual or implied, in music. It is sometimes referred to as the 'vertical' aspect of music, with melody being the 'horizontal" aspect. Very often, harmony is a result of counterpoint or polyphony, several melodic lines or motifs being played at once, though harmony may control the counterpoint”.
“Some traditions of music performance, composition, and theory have specific rules of harmony. These rules are often held to be based on a natural properties such as Pythagorean tuning's low whole number ratios (‘harmoniousness’ being inherent in the ratios either perceptually or in themselves) or harmonics and resonances (‘harmoniousness’ being inherent in the quality of sound), with the allowable pitches and harmonies gaining their beauty or simplicity from their closeness to those properties. Other traditions, such as the ban on parallel fifths, were simply matters of taste’.
In this current enterprise, lots of reference architectural framework pitch and open distributed architectural recommendations crossover are present. The effective use of those best practices is very much capable of generation of the divine melodic polyphony. So rather than following composition approach, which adds to the overlap of concern, Harmony classification framework leverages the best practice framework foundations to classify the enterprise as an extension inheritance. Our classification framework harmonises the enterprise utilising model driven enterprise systems development approach. The Harmony classification framework defines the long awaited requirements of an ultimate success path as a foundation upon which enterprise value chains will be able to be easily integrated.
Foundation Stones
Harmony has got a genetic crossover between few of the architectural Excellencies. It has got the basic foundation of seven wonders of the enterprise world: GERAM (ISO-15704), RM-ODP (10746), MDA, IEEE 1471-2000, AOP, OMG Reusable Asset Specification (Version 2.2 dated 05-11-02), and ISO 9126 Quality of Service attributes. Figure 2 briefly highlights some of the standards behind the harmony:
GERAM Standards (ISO-15704) GERAM is a comprehensive enterprise reference architecture methodology that helps in building the enterprise architecture benefit from the enterprise models. The documentation explains, “GERAM is not yet-another-proposal for the enterprise reference architecture, but is meant to organise existing enterprise integration knowledge. The framework has the potential for application to all the types of enterprise. Previously published reference architectures can keep their own identity, while identifying through GERAM their overlaps and complementing benefits compared to others.” [GERAM]
RM-ODP (10746) Viewpoints
This architecture provides a framework for the specification of Open Distributed Processing Systems. RM-ODP uses an object modeling approach to describe distributed systems. RM-ODP defines eight different types of transparencies: access transparency, location transparency, relocation transparency, migration transparency, persistence transparency, failure transparency, replication transparency, and transaction transparency. On the other hand, it describes five important viewpoints: the enterprise viewpoint, the information viewpoint, the computational viewpoint, the engineering viewpoint, and the technology viewpoint.
RM-ODP emphasises transparent interactive open distributed systems.
Model Driven Architecture
Since the inception of the software industry, architects are facing a fundamental challenge to transform enterprise vision, views and viewpoints into an appropriate modeling realisation. Using UML techniques we can design used-cases to capture the enterprise requirements, model components, modules, systems and their interactions. However, it neither gives us any reusability of designed models, nor any interoperability between different heterogeneous models. In this context the Object Management Group (OMG) has articulated a particular vision in their Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) and has introduced a standard modeling specification. MDA provides the efficient modeling techniques to model different enterprise domain, transformation techniques to transform one type of model to another and mapping techniques to generate implementation code from them.
IEEE 1471-2000 Architecture Definition
The term 'architecture' is widely used in different preferred way, sometimes biased in a particular direction. The purpose of IEEE Standard 1471-2000 is to lay a foundation through standardisation of architectural elements and expressing the architectural description of the software systems. This is one of the ground breaking works that laid the required foundation and provided a guided direction to express the architecture and describe it in a standard way. Figure 3 illustrates a modified version of IEEE 1471-2000 architectural description in the enterprise context, which is a bottom-up extension of architectural description:
Harmony framework is truly powered by this modified conceptual model of enterprise architectural description and strongly influences the creation of a unified enterprise architectural description.
Aspect Oriented Programming: Effectiveness of Separation of Concern Oriented Software Development
Separation of Concern (SOC) is one of the most revolutionary concepts in the practice of state-of-the-art software engineering. Traditional component-oriented software development techniques are inadequate for coping with software complexity. They often fail to achieve desired software quality factors (such as adaptability, maintainability, extendibility and reusability) and avoid inheritance, which are the primary motivations for organising and decomposing software into manageable and comprehensible modules. In such a scenario, MDA stands to greatly benefit from the Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP)-based modularisation and weaving concepts. MDA handles the vertical decomposition of a matrix enterprise into several domains, domain-independent components, industry-specific components and technology-specific components. On the other hand, AOP handles the horizontal decomposition of each problem space domain, design space, and implementation into concern-oriented models. This separation of concern-oriented approach is leading the enterprise towards revolutionary directions and has a significant impact on enterprise architecture layers, and the way we derive enterprise architecture. SOC based approach helps us in weaving the Ultimate Enterprise Architecture, a holistic way of harmonising the layers.
OMG Reusable Asset Specification (Version 2.2 dated 05-11-02)
According to the specification, “The scope of this specification is a set of guidelines and recommendations about the structure, content, and descriptions of reusable software assets. We recognise that there are different categories of reusable software assets. The specification identifies some categories, or rather types or profiles and provides general guidelines on these profiles. The Reusable Asset Specification (RAS) addresses the engineering elements of reuse. It attempts to reduce the friction associated with reuse transactions through consistent, standard packaging. This is much like the steering wheel, turn signals, pedals, and fuel gauge in a car: although they’re slightly different across car models and makes, there’s a familiarity among them that significantly reduces the costs of reuse.” Therefore, considering this OMG reusable asset specification is a very important aspect of today’s enterprise asset building and portfolio management criteria.
ISO 9126 Quality of Service Attributes
Non-Functional Requirements are one of the other aspects that help qualify and quantify the enterprise architectural aspects. Therefore, that is one of the keys of this harmonium. All these influences could be depicted as illustrated in Figure 4:
Harmony Classification Frameworks: Its Views and Viewpoints
This framework defines eight different views and eight viewpoints in an 8x8 matrix. Table 1 and table 2 summarise the participant views and viewpoints:
Utilising the magical power of this 8x8 matrix, implanting these 8 viewpoints and 8 views, Harmony framework plays the notes to make a pleasing sound. These pleasing combinations produce the holistic harmonisation among the enterprise architectural concepts and build the agile enterprise in a significantly faster speed. Figure 5 briefly highlights the fields of Harmony:
Harmony Classification Framework is the only effective way of building the unambiguous and fastest enterprise.
Conclusions
Harmony paves the enterprise roadmap in a way that builds your enterprise in the fastest speed. It satisfies most of the enterprise requirements and helps us building model driven dynamic enterprise systems. It demystifies all ambiguity in a transparent way. This framework significantly reduces the time-to-market. In the next issue, I will investigate how this framework satisfies the enterprise requirements in a transparent way. It will show us how this framework uses the CORE that harmonises enterprise mazes.
References
- [GERAM] GERAM: Generalised Enterprise Reference Architecture and Methodology. Version 1.6.3 (http://www.cit.gu.edu.au/~bernus/taskforce/geram) also in P.Bernus, L.Nemes and G. Schmidt (Eds) Handbook on Enterprise Architecture, Berlin : Springer (2003) pp 22-64.
- Handbook on Enterprise Architecture, by Bernus, P., Nemes, L. and G. Schmidt (eds.), Springer, (2003), ISBN is 3540003436
- Enterprise Entity
- MDA Specification
- [ECA] http://www.omg.org/docs/formal/04-02-01.pdf
- [Harmony] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony
- http://www.rm-odp.net
- How business failure paves the way to success
- MDA and RM-ODP: two approaches in modern ontological engineering by Andrey aumenko, Alain Wegmann, Institute for computer Communication and Applications, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – Lausanne
- A Survey of Software Architecture Viewpoint Models by Nicholas May (nick may@netlink.com.au) · [ISO/IEC 10746]
- [IEEE 1471-2000] IEEE Recommended Practice for Architectural Description of Software- Intensive systems. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering Std 1471-2000
- [AOP] Aspect Oriented Programming by Gregor Kiczales, John Lamping, Anurang Mendhekar, Chris Maeda, Cristina Lopes, Jean-Marc Loingtier and John Irvin. In Mehmet Aksit and Satoshi Matsuoka (Eds.), Proceedings of ECOOP'97 · Aspect Oriented Software Development with Use Cases by Ivar Jacobson and Pan-Wei NG, Addision Wesley, ISBN 0321268881
- OMG Reusable Asset Specification (Version 2.2 dated 05-11-02)
- [ISO 9126 Quality of Service attributes] Software Quality: The Elusive Target by Barbara Kitchenham and Shari Lawrence Pfleeger, The Software, IEEE, January 1996 (Vol. 13, No. 1) pp. 12-21
- [Hyperspace] http://www.research.ibm.com/hyperspace/index.htm
- The Role of Aspect-Oriented Programming in OMG’s Model-Driven Architecture by Dean Wampler, Aspect Programming, Inc.
- Reasoning About a Classification of Crosscutting Concerns in Object-Oriented Systems by Constantinos A. Constantinides, Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, Birkbeck College, University of London and Therapon Skotiniotis, College of Computer Science, Northeastern University
- Applying Aspect-Orient Programming Concepts to a Component-based Programming Model by Thomas Eidson, Jack Dongarra and Victor Eijkhout
- Role of Model-Driven Architecture in Business Integration by Sundar Vaidyanathan, Business Integration Journal, September 2004
- A Rational approach to model-driven development by A. W. Brown,S. Iyengar, and S. Johnston Published in IBM Systems · Gartner Report on “Return on Enterprise Architecture: Measure it in Asset Productivity” (RPT-0702-0119)
- MDA and RM-ODP: two approaches in modern ontological engineering by Andrey Naumenko, Alain Wegmann Institute for computer Communication and Applications, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – Lausanne
