IDEAS Chris Partridge 6/27/2019

Taxonomy & Classification Derived from Linguistics Not as formal as it could be E.g. Glider is a form of a plane Microlight is a form of a glider Microlight is not a plane Typically don’t have relationships Customer and Company exist but Customer is not related to Company 6/27/2019

Ontology Ontology Been around for many years Is formal Current interest came out of AI in 1990’s Knowledge Representation Philosophical Ontology (Mealy 1967) Is formal Eg Glider is a form of a plane Microlight is a form of a glider Microlight is a plane Does include relationships Customer has a relationship with Company Customer is actually a relationship 6/27/2019

Philosophical Ontology A philosophical ontology: Use philosophical ontology because it is the discipline that focuses on developing precise pictures of the world – and it has been working on this for over 2,500 years. An ontology is those things in the world (business domain) whose existence a theory (an application) commits to. In a development, without a clear picture of the ontology, the application cannot clearly reflect the business domain. Philosophical ontology enables us to clearly and explicitly model the application’s ontology – and reflect this in the application. 6/27/2019

Philosophical Ontology - Technical A philosophical ontology: Not only subscribes to the philosophical notion of an ontology But also is informed by philosophical research – e.g.: Contains a top ontology – with the categories of existence and their identity criteria. Explicitly makes metaphysical choices. E.g. Four dimensionalism (vs. three dimensionalism) Extensionalism (vs. intensionalism) 6/27/2019

Current Development Approach Technology Locked Zone Computation Dependent Zone Technology Dependent Zone Legacy System Logical Model (PIM) Physical Model (PSM) No System Specifies the Computational Design Specifies the Physical Design Greenfield Zone Mapping System Architecture 6/27/2019

Development Approach Have added a business architecture dimension Physical Model (PSM) Logical (PIM) Business Domain Models No System Legacy Service Technology Locked Zone Application Agnostic Zone Application Dependent Zone Computation Dependent Zone Technology Dependent Zone Greenfield Zone Computation Agnostic Zone (CIM) Technology Agnostic Zone Model Driven Architecture (MDA) Business Architecture System Architecture Captures Business Domain Knowledge From Legacy Systems Captures Business Service Knowledge From Legacy Systems Specifies the Computational Design Specifies the Physical Design Describes The Business Domain/Ontology Describes The Business Service Requirements (Epistemic and Performative) Mapping Have added a business architecture dimension 6/27/2019

Generalising / sophisticating patterns Ways in which patterns can be made more sophisticated: Generality. The degree by which the scope of the types in the improved model can be increased without the loss of information. Simplicity. The degree by which the model can be made less complex. Explanatory power. The ability of the improved model to give increased meaning. Fruitfulness. The degree to which the improved model can meet currently unspecified requirements or is easily extendable to do so. Objectivity. The ability of the model to provide a more objective (shared) understanding of the world : in particular, to index a thing to its mode of existence as opposed to its mode of representation and/or application. Precision. The ability of the improved model to give a more precise picture of the business object. 6/27/2019

Analysis strategy A common framework across the business Individual entities only appear once. Do not need to have, for instance, company appearing once as a purchaser and again as a supplier. But need to be able to show if it is a purchaser, supplier or both. Take advantage of high level re-usable patterns Same pattern appearing in a number of areas. 6/27/2019

Generalisation – no loss of information Original Types Identify Super-Types Original Types Redundant Typically lower level patterns are combinations of more general patterns Analysis process enables 42 to make most lower level patterns redundant – become a combination of business patterns which inherit foundation patterns Pattern combination facility enables the construction of new, sometimes vastly different, patterns from combinations of the general patterns NO LOSS OF INFORMATION 6/27/2019

Power of pattern combination Narrower Wider Scope/Functionality Level of Generality Lower Higher Traditional patterns Combination enabled patterns Too complex Pattern combination has the potential for generating a substantial number of new patterns. Key is two-fold: enabling pattern combination identifying fruitful general patterns Number of general types 1 5 10 20 100 200 N Potential number of lower level types 26 1013 1,048,555 1.27*1030 1.61*1060 2N-N-1 6/27/2019

Benefits of Ontology Ontology gives developers a sound understanding of the business domain Less likely to exercise poor judgement Ontology provides a scientific specification from which developers can code directly Quicker development Development reflects requirements Ontology delivers semantic interoperability Data is not open to interpretation or misunderstanding 6/27/2019