Connecting enterprise architecture and information objects using an enterprise ontology

In this paper we show how semantic metadata - derived from the enterprise architecture description - can improve both the exploitation of information in the operative business and the continuous alignment of information systems with the business. ArchiMEO, a formal representation of the ArchiMate framework, was applied to model selected parts of a large Swiss company, including metadata of concrete information objects stored in various applications. The evaluation of our approach clearly gave evidence that linking an enterprise ontology with operational databases is beneficiary: it provides an integrated view and management of enterprise entities spread over various data stores, represented in different ways and levels of granularity. Furthermore, because of its inference capabilities, when used as metadata encoding scheme an enterprise ontology can provide context-sensitive access to relevant information.

[1]  Satya S. Sahoo,et al.  A Survey of Current Approaches for Mapping of Relational Databases to RDF , 2009 .

[2]  Jane Hunter,et al.  Towards a Core Ontology for Information Integration , 2003, J. Digit. Inf..

[3]  Francis P. Bretherton,et al.  Metadata: a user's view , 1994, Seventh International Working Conference on Scientific and Statistical Database Management.

[4]  Robert Winter,et al.  Essential Layers, Artifacts, and Dependencies of Enterprise Architecture , 2006, 2006 10th IEEE International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference Workshops (EDOCW'06).

[5]  Dieter Fensel,et al.  Knowledge Engineering: Principles and Methods , 1998, Data Knowl. Eng..

[6]  Dirk Matthes,et al.  Enterprise Architecture Frameworks Kompendium , 2011 .

[7]  Mauri Leppänen,et al.  A Context-Based Enterprise Ontology , 2007, BIS.

[8]  Robert Winter,et al.  Unternehmensarchitektur – Literaturüberblick und Stand der Praxis , 2008, Wirtschaftsinf..

[9]  Marne De Vries,et al.  A process reuse identification framework using an alignment model , 2013 .

[10]  John C. Henderson,et al.  Strategic Alignment: Leveraging Information Technology for Transforming Organizations , 1999, IBM Syst. J..

[11]  Andy Powell,et al.  DCMI Abstract Model , 2005 .

[12]  Alan R. Hevner,et al.  Design Science in Information Systems Research , 2004, MIS Q..

[13]  Asunción Gómez-Pérez,et al.  Ontological Engineering: With Examples from the Areas of Knowledge Management, e-Commerce and the Semantic Web , 2004, Advanced Information and Knowledge Processing.

[14]  Jan L. G. Dietz,et al.  Enterprise ontology - theory and methodology , 2006 .

[15]  Barbara Thoenssen,et al.  Automatic, Format-independent Generation of Metadata for Documents Based on Semantically Enriched Context Information , 2013 .

[16]  Dimitris Karagiannis,et al.  BPMS: business process management systems , 1995, SIGO.

[17]  Martin Hepp,et al.  An Ontology Framework for Semantic Business Process Management , 2007, Wirtschaftsinformatik.

[18]  Xia Zhang,et al.  Ontology-based geographic information semantic metadata integration , 2009, Geoinformatics.

[19]  Dan Brickley,et al.  Rdf vocabulary description language 1.0 : Rdf schema , 2004 .

[20]  Arun Sen,et al.  Metadata management: past, present and future , 2004, Decis. Support Syst..

[21]  Michael Gruninger,et al.  Methodology for the Design and Evaluation of Ontologies , 1995, IJCAI 1995.

[22]  Karen Coyle,et al.  Guidelines for Dublin Core application profiles , 2009 .

[23]  Wolfgang Riggert,et al.  ECM - Enterprise Content Management , 2009 .

[24]  Marian H. Nodine,et al.  Use of InfoSleuth to Coordinate Information Acquisition, Tracking and Analysis in Complex Applications , 2001 .

[25]  Corey Harper.  Dublin Core Metadata Initiative: Beyond the Element Set , 2010 .

[26]  Thomas R. Gruber,et al.  Toward principles for the design of ontologies used for knowledge sharing? , 1995, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[27]  Diego Calvanese,et al.  Enterprise modeling and Data Warehousing in Telecom Italia , 2006, Inf. Syst..

[28]  Inge Hanschke.  Strategic IT Management - A Toolkit for Enterprise Architecture Management , 2009 .

[29]  Maria-Eugenia Iacob,et al.  ArchiMate 2.0 Specification , 2012 .

[30]  Turo Kilpeläinen,et al.  Applying Genre-Based Ontologies to Enterprise Architecture , 2007 .

[31]  Boris Otto,et al.  Collaborative management of business metadata , 2011, Int. J. Inf. Manag..

[32]  Mauri Leppänen,et al.  Enterprise Architecture Descriptions for Enhancing Local Government Transformation and Coherency Management: Case Study , 2011, 2011 IEEE 15th International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference Workshops.

[33]  Maria Dolores C. Tongco,et al.  Purposive Sampling as a Tool for Informant Selection , 2007 .

[34]  Jose Manuel Corera,et al.  Building and Reusing Ontologies for Electrical Network Applications , 1996, ECAI.

[35]  Philip E. T. Lewis,et al.  Research Methods for Business Students , 2006 .

[36]  S. Chatterjee,et al.  Design Science Research in Information Systems , 2010 .

[37]  Ralf Eggeling,et al.  User guide , 2000 .

[38]  Yuzhong Qu,et al.  Discovering Simple Mappings Between Relational Database Schemas and Ontologies , 2007, ISWC/ASWC.

[39]  Jeongsoo Lee,et al.  An ontology-based Enterprise Architecture , 2010, Expert Syst. Appl..

[40]  John A. Zachman,et al.  A Framework for Information Systems Architecture , 1987, IBM Syst. J..

[41]  Emanuela Merelli,et al.  The Role of Content and Context in Enterprise Repositories , 2010, BPM 2010.

[42]  L. Stein,et al.  OWL Web Ontology Language - Reference , 2004 .

[43]  Agata Filipowska,et al.  Organizational ontologies to support semantic business process management , 2009, SBPM '09.

[44]  Marc M. Lankhorst,et al.  Enterprise Architecture at Work - Modelling, Communication and Analysis, 2nd Edition , 2005, The Enterprise Engineering Series.

[45]  Guy Doumeingts,et al.  Architectures for enterprise integration and interoperability: Past, present and future , 2008, Comput. Ind..

[46]  Amar Gupta,et al.  Creating Agile Business Systems with Reusable Knowledge , 2007 .

[47]  Mark S. Fox,et al.  On Ontologies And Enterprise Modelling , 2002 .

[48]  Hanifa Shah,et al.  Enterprise Architecture Frameworks , 2007 .

[49]  François Scharffe,et al.  Processing Ontology Alignments with SPARQL , 2008, 2008 International Conference on Complex, Intelligent and Software Intensive Systems.

[50]  Frank Teuteberg,et al.  Semantic Technologies for Business and Information Systems Engineering: Concepts and Applications , 2011 .

[51]  Steffen Staab,et al.  Wissensmanagement mit Ontologien und Metadaten , 2002, Informatik-Spektrum.

[52]  Salvatore T. March,et al.  Design and natural science research on information technology , 1995, Decis. Support Syst..

[53]  August-Wilhelm Scheer,et al.  Corporate Performance Management: ARIS in der Praxis , 2007 .

[54]  J. Current,et al.  Theory and methodology , 1991 .

[55]  Michael Uschold,et al.  Ontologies: principles, methods and applications , 1996, The Knowledge Engineering Review.

[56]  Diane I. Hillmann.  Using Dublin Core , 2008 .

[57]  Martin Doerr,et al.  Ontology-Based Metadata Integration in the Cultural Heritage Domain , 2007, ICADL.

[58]  E. Prud hommeaux,et al.  SPARQL query language for RDF , 2011 .

[59]  John F. Sowa,et al.  Extending and Formalizing the Framework for Information Systems Architecture , 1992, IBM Syst. J..

[60]  Mark S. Fox,et al.  An organisation ontology for enterprise modeling: preliminary concepts for linking structure and behaviour , 1996 .

[61]  Stéphane Bressan,et al.  Context Interchange: New Features and Formalisms for the Intelligent Integration of Information Context Interchange: New Features and Formalisms for the Intelligent Integration of Information , 1997 .

[62]  Heiner Stuckenschmidt,et al.  Ontology-Based Integration of Information - A Survey of Existing Approaches , 2001, OIS@IJCAI.

[63]  Michael Uschold,et al.  The Enterprise Ontology , 1998, The Knowledge Engineering Review.

[64]  Kokou Yétongnon,et al.  DB2OWL : A Tool for Automatic Database-to-Ontology Mapping , 2007, SEBD.

[65]  Robert Woitsch,et al.  Business and IT alignment: the IT-Socket , 2009, Elektrotech. Informationstechnik.

[66]  James Martin,et al.  Computer Data-Base Organization , 1975 .

[67]  Barbara Thönssen,et al.  A Broader View on Context Models towards Supporting Business Process Agility , 2012 .

[68]  Alejandra Cechich,et al.  Ontology-Based Data Integration Methods: A Framework for Comparison , 2010, Rev. Colomb. de Computación.

[69]  Boris Otto,et al.  The Effect of Using a Semantic Wiki for Metadata Management: A Controlled Experiment , 2009 .

[70]  Robert Lagerström,et al.  Enterprise architecture analysis with extended influence diagrams , 2007, Inf. Syst. Frontiers.

[71]  Michael Grüninger,et al.  Ontologies to Support Process Integration in Enterprise Engineering , 2000, Comput. Math. Organ. Theory.

[72]  Farhad Arbab,et al.  Towards a language for coherent enterprise architecture descriptions , 2003, Seventh IEEE International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference, 2003. Proceedings..

[73]  August-Wilhelm Scheer,et al.  Wirtschaftsinformatik : Informationssysteme im Industriebetrieb , 1990 .

[74]  Vipul Kashyap,et al.  OBSERVER: An Approach for Query Processing in Global Information Systems Based on Interoperation Across Pre-Existing Ontologies , 2000, Distributed and Parallel Databases.

[75]  Leon A. Kappelman,et al.  John Zachman’s Concise Definition of the Zachman Framework , 2010 .

[76]  Roger Sessions,et al.  A Better Path to Enterprise Architectures , 2006 .

[77]  Martin Doerr,et al.  Integrating Dublin Core Metadata for Cultural Heritage Collections Using Ontologies , 2007, Dublin Core Conference.

[78]  Isabel F. Cruz,et al.  The role of ontologies in data integration , 2005 .