1. IJIS Industry Summer Briefing – July 2011
NIEM
Test
Model
Data
Deploy
Requirements
Build
Exchange
Generate
Dictionary
Using NIEM EIEM
Dictionaries for Better
Information
Alignment
Exchange Development
Peter Doolan, GVP & Chief Technologist, Oracle Public Sector David Webber, Information Architect, Oracle Public Sector
IJIS Industry Summer Briefing – July 2011

2. Overview
The NIEM NTAC has introduced the use of Enterprise Information Exchange Models (EIEM) and dictionaries
How can your organization leverage these, what are the technical advantages, business benefits and challenges?
Understand lessons learned from existing experience creating EIEM dictionaries and models and what are the resources and assets needed to do this for an enterprise.
Creating IEPD exchanges using EIEM assets can enable rapid leveraging of NIEM for organizations; however, managing the process and stakeholders for the EIEM then provides additional needs.

3. Introduction What is the big picture of EIEM for federal enterprises?
How does government acquire and manage these assets?
How can you leverage your existing infrastructure?
What roles do semantics and rules play?
EIEM collaboration and alignment
Lessons learned and examples
What tools are available?
Initial support provided in GTRI dictionary server
CAM toolkit dictionary support

4. Transitioning from NIEM past/present to NIEM future
EIEM – the big picture

5. NIEM Past and Present Challenges
Vertical domain vocabulary for DHS and DOJ
One dozen domain dictionaries
Technology limited - built using XSD schema
Core components highly contextual to DHS/DOJ
Surprisingly – no actual logical models of information!
Gap with semantic technologies integration
Limited data content rules and code lists
Mapping automation support missing
Multi-year development life cycles

6. NIEM Future?
Abstract dictionary representations with strong semantics, rules and code lists support
Schema, models, documentation are generated from dictionary automatically
Contextual mechanisms allow linear number of true core components – not exponential growth
Easier for practitioners to leverage with more predictable and repeatable results
Enable domain use horizontally across government
ETL mapping automation support
Continuous collaboration environment

7. Understanding EIEM today
EIEM – Explored

8. Why do we need EIEM dictionaries?
Allows domains to manage their components libraries
Provides consistency for project development teams
Sets of NIEM consistent XML exchange components
Aligned to enterprise data stores
Optimized for reuse and interoperability
Save time and effort across the enterprise
Perennial question for developers – when should I use NIEM components, and when our own local ones?
Are there components already available for that purpose?
Provide formal mechanisms and procedures to share components and collaborate across SDLC process
Provide external parties consistent data views

9. How to create EIEM dictionaries
Top down - directly from information models
Enterprise modelling tools
SQL database physical table definitions
Bottom up
Harvesting from existing data assets
Harvesting from XML exchange structures and schema
Using neutral abstract standards based representations

10. Conceptual Information Model
Canonical Components Dictionary
XML
Follows
Naming and Design Rule (NDR) principles and guidelines
Each compound component
Parent (ABIE)
Item
Parent (ABIE)
Item
Parent (ABIE)
Item
Parent (ABIE)
Item
Each atomic component
Attribute
(ASBIE)
Child
(BBIE)
Item
Child
(BBIE)
Item
Child
(BBIE)
Item
Child
(BBIE)
Item
Attribute
(ASBIE)
Shows overall components in the dictionary. Parents contain references to children. Children may exist atomically without parent. One child element may be referenced by multiple parents. Attributes can be associated with children or parent.
Attribute
(ASBIE)
ebXML CCTS terms (ABIE, BBIE, ASBIE)
Parent = Aggregate Business Information Entity
Child = Basic Business Information Entity
Attribute = Association Business Information Entity
Attribute
(ASBIE)
Optional attributes of component
* CCTS – Core Components Technical Specification

11. Example – Person Name Person Name (ABIE)
Verified Details? (ASBIE)
First Name (BBIE)
Middle Name (BBIE)
Last Name (BBIE)
Previous Name? (ASBIE)
Language Code (BBIE)
Language Code may exist independently of Person Name
Verified Details and Previous Name are flags that denote additional information about the entity they are associated with
There are three component items aspects:
structure relationships; content rules; definitions

12. Top Down - ICE EIEM dictionary generation
Production Rules
ICE Enterprise Data Model (EDM)
ERwin Refactoring,
Compress,
Renaming Tool
NIEM NDR Evaluations 1 2 3
OASIS CAM template
Model Components
XSD
schema
Ele
Export
Import
Apply
Def 5 4
DDL
Code
Lists
Code
Lists
Excel Spreadsheet
ERwin model
Completed CAM template
Analyst Review
BENEFITS:
Will reduce ICE development time and effort
Pre-built NIEM consistent XML components
XML consistent with ICE enterprise SQL data
Removes scope for definition errors
Maximizes reuse potential across ICE
Open public standards based approach
Open technology infrastructure
ERwinClient 7 6
XML +
XSD
Canonical Dictionary of ICE exchange components
Generate
Standard
Components Dictionary
XML
Write
ebXML CCTS compatible (ABIE, BBIE, ASBIE)

13. Renaming Tool Expands abbreviations (has built-in lists with context)
Corrects common typos and spelling errors (200+)
Adjusts names to camel case with no separators (_)
Retains acronyms
Adds name suffix according to NIEM representation terms and type of content, e.g. date, number, code, etc
Optionally refactor rules by their type for interoperability; make nillable optional; relax DB length restrictions
Can optionally insert namespace prefix
Can be configured by editing the lists in: word-utils.xsl
Refactoring of rules by type removes inconsistent length constraints often found in databases. These are not consistent with XML approach of having unconstrained content.
Two approaches possible. 1# - leave all constraints “as is” in the dictionary – control their use by using Expander tool options, or 2# fix with renaming tool.

14. Bottom Up – OASIS/NIST EML
EML – Election Markup Language
State and Local voting management systems data standard
Option 2 – Derive from existing exchange XSD schema
Import each XSD and merge into CAM dictionary 2 3 4
CAM template
NDR
Evaluation,
Refactor,
Renaming
Tool
Merge & Generate Dictionary
XML
Exchange XSD schema
Import
CAM template
XML
Exchange XSD schema
Import
OASIS CAM template
Dictionary of canonical components
Exchange XSD schema
Import
Analyst Review 1
ebXML CCTS compatible (ABIE, BBIE, ASBIE)
EML Core XSD schema 5
OASIS CIQ schema
Generate model diagrams
UML/XMI
Mind maps
OASIS GIS schema

15. N-DEx Dictionary and Model
Dictionary viewer with N-Dex components
Freemind Interactive Model
(Harvested from N-DEx schema – ndexia.xsd and ndexibp2.xsd)

16. Leveraging EIEM dictionaries
Where can we use EIEM assets?
What formats do we need to use?
Are there applicable standards / guidelines?

17. Visual Designer with Dictionary Collection
Domain dictionary
Industry dictionary 1
Component Definitions
Exchange
Designer
Component Definitions 2
Search
Tools
Insert
Dictionary
Parent
Components
Drag n’ Drop Tool 3 4 5
Completed Exchange Template

18. Alien Transfer Manifest – Mock Up
dictionaries
XML
ICE EDM dictionary
NIEM Immigration dictionary
EID extensions dictionary
ICE components referenced
EID pre-defined collections
based on NIEM + ICE + new
Immigration component
Namespaces of dictionary components
Definitions stored as syntax neutral canonical XML
NIEM components
Collection
This slide shows a conceptual prototype for an alien transfer exchange for repatriation purposes. The exchange structure is built using a selection of components from ICE, NIEM and domain defined assemblies. The dictionaries provide the structural and content rule details for those items. New items and collections in the EID dictionary eventually will be promoted to ICE EDM during the SLM process.
Technical Note: Inline child elements for ice: components shown for illustrative purposes only; actually are type reuse references (paperclip icon on parent node).

19. Challenges and Opportunities
Learning curve for application development teams
Teams used to manually crafting XML Schema and Java code in developer XML IDE tools
Paradigm shift
Integration into SDLC and IEPD processes
Integration with existing SOA stack environments
Currently working with SAIC and State Department
Automatic generation of WSDL and Java code assets
Unit test XML instance generation
XML test framework and validation services

20. Vision: Top Down Exchange Assembly
Components
Canonical XML Components Dictionary 1
XML
User Inserts
Navigation and Query Tools
Relationship Lookups
Component Associations and Couplings 2
Domains Reuse Library
Exchange Templates and Rules 3
Artefact relationships
Catalog
Template
Automatic Rendering Tools
Presentation
W3C Schema and Model Representations 4
Schema
XML
Collaboration Services
Models
Components
Delivery Control, Messaging, Security
Deployment Environments and Middleware 5
Testing Workbench, Rules Engine, Data Samples, Integration ETL
Implementation Artifacts and Examples 6

21. Exchange Delivery Lifecycle
Component Dictionary
Drag and Drop Visual Editor
Template
Updates
Design
Monitor
Author
Test
CAM
Template
XML Samples
Deploy
XSD Schema
Production
Log Results
XMI / UML Models
Compiled
Templates
Documentation

22. CAM Toolkit

23. CAM V2.0 Release Features
Dictionary “Drag and Drop” of components to build exchanges
Enhanced visual editor and performance - 3x faster, smaller memory footprint
Cross-platform deploy - Windows, Ubuntu/LINUX, Mac; 32/64bit
Mind map models – integration with Freemind tool
UML/XMI export – import to UML tools / ArgoUML
Code list table lookups – rule based and selectable
This allows people to fully integrate their exchange development from dictionaries through to working deployed exchange schema.
NIEM Team - Public Sector Sales

24. Available XML Dictionaries
LEXS 3.1.4 dictionary
OASIS EDXL dictionary
OASIS EML dictionary
NIEM 2.1 dictionaries
CBRN dictionary
Emergency dictionary
Family dictionary
Immigration dictionary
Infrastructure dictionary
Intelligence dictionary
Justice dictionary
Maritime dictionary
Screening dictionary
Trade dictionary
Immigration blueprint
NIEM core dictionary
Packaged with CAM editor
see dictionary folder of install
+ spreadsheet
+ sample control files
XML
XML
XML
Note: Those marked in bold are model style dictionaries with recursive components.
Available from download site
direct link:
+ includes spreadsheets and sample models
Sampling of available dictionaries. Those marked in bold are model style dictionaries with recursive components.
XML
XML
XML
XML
XML
XML

25. EIEM Next Steps Align CAM dictionary tools with GTRI dictionary server
Integrate to other modelling tools – not just ERwin
Provide extended reporting tools for analysis across dictionary of components and between dictionary collections – report on
Inconsistency
Common components
Extensions