Effective Ontology Development using UML and Enterprise Architect TDWG Technical Architecture Group – 17 Oct 2011 Sam Mancarella Chief Technology Officer Sparx Systems Pty Ltd

Overview Ontologies in Enterprise Architect –MDG Technology for ODM –OWL / RDF Challenges of Ontology development –Collaboration, Maintenance, Reuse, Scale –How Enterprise Architect meets them

…but first… an introduction to Sparx Systems and Enterprise Architect

Sparx Systems Established in 1998 Leading provider of modeling tools –Support for Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) –Support for industry-standard modeling languages, technologies and frameworks (UML, SysML, BPMN, SoaML, TOGAF) Representation in over 60 countries –Value-added resellers (solution providers) –Resellers, Training Partners –Sister companies (Japan, Central Europe, Sth America, NZ) Headquartered in Creswick (central Victoria, Australia)

Enterprise Architect UML 2.3 powered, team-based modeling environment –Full lifecycle management –Business modeling, Systems engineering, Enterprise architecture, Requirements management, Software design –Scaleable, High-performance, Multiuser –Visual Execution Analysis, Simulation –Template-based reporting (RTF, HTML) –Code generation/roundtrip support for > 10 languages –Extensible, Customizable Over 250,000 active licensees worldwide Award Winning

Enterprise Architect

MDG Technology for ODM Based on Ontology Definition Metamodel –OMG Standard (May 2009) V 1.0 –UML Profiles for RDF, OWL –Diagram Types, Construct Toolboxes, Import/Export Script

MDG Technology for ODM 2 Toolbox Diagram Type Property Definition Subtyping Semantic Relationship

MDG Technology for ODM 3

MDG Technology for ODM 4

MDG Technology for ODM 5 Facts (ie: Things) –owlIndividual Instances of owlClasses

Challenges of Ontology Definition Scale Ontologies can get really big! –30,000+ artifacts in NCI Thesaurus Difficult to Maintain Need to Reuse

Challenges – Scale 2 What’s changed between revisions?

Challenges – Scale 2 Model Differencing (add, delete, change, move)

Challenges – Scale 2 Visual Differencing

Challenges – Scale 3 How can we reuse what we’ve already done again?

Challenges – Scale 3 Model Patterns (reusable model fragments) Copy-paste between multiple instances

Challenges of Ontology Definition Teamwork Multiple people develop ontologies –SMEs, Analysts, Practitioners, Stakeholders All have a say in ontology development Need to contribute value Need to use the ontology

Challenges – Teamwork 2 Team Review (conversations about the model, in the model)

Challenges – Teamwork 3 Fully Customizable Environment

Challenges – Teamwork 4 Project Planning, Resourcing, Management

Challenges – Teamwork 5 Project Audit (who changed what, when?)

Conclusion MDG Technology for ODM: –RDF & OWL support in Enterprise Architect –owlClass, owlObjectProperty, owlIndividual –Subclassing, Restriction (cardinality, value) –Semantics, Facts Ontology development challenges –Scale (reuse, baselines, model comparison, manage change) –Teamwork (team review, customize, audit, project management) Enterprise Architect provides best-of-breed tools to: –Mitigate design complexity –Enable greater stakeholder enablement –Ensure design correctness/completeness/relevance

Learn More? Enterprise Architect 9.1 Trial Reviewer’s Guide [whitepaper] MDA Overview [whitepaper] Deployment of EA [whitepaper] Sparx Systems Community SparxSystems YouTube Channel