Overview
This research project analyses dominating standards for Enterprise Systems
Interoperability from the viewpoint of an established ontology. The Bunge-Wand-Weber
(BWW) models proved to be a valuable benchmark for the evaluation of many modelling
techniques. A similar methodological approach is applied to the analysis of
ebXML, XBRL, BPML, SOAP and WSFL. The theoretical evaluation will lead to propositions
regarding potential weaknesses of these standards. This will especially include
a comparison of the overlap of these standards.
Background
The internal and cross-organisational integration of Enterprise Systems such
as the mySAP applications is a current challenge for many organisations after
the initial implementation of these comprehensive solutions. This integration
requires precisely defined and agreed standards for the communication between
the involved systems and business partners. Though a wide-ranging appreciation
and acceptance for such standards exist, a sound evaluation of these approaches
has not been provided yet.
This research applies a well-established ontological approach for such an evaluation.
Ontologies provide formal frameworks that facilitate an understanding of the
real world. They have been proven to be an appropriate benchmark for the evaluation
of modelling techniques such as DFDs, E-R, and ARIS. This proposed research
uses an ontology developed by Bunge, Wand and Weber, which has resulted in a
set of models called the BWW models.
The objective of this research is to evaluate formally some of the dominating
B2B standards for the interoperability of Enterprise Applications, namely ebXML,
XBRL, BPML, SOAP and WSFL. It will be evaluated as to how complete and clear
these standards are in comparison with the selected ontology. Ontological completeness
refers to how comprehensive an exchange standard captures relevant elements
of the real world. Thus, ontological incompleteness provides valuable insights
into potentially relevant extensions of standards. Ontological clarity is determined
by the extent to which the standard does not exhibit one or more of the following
deficiencies. Construct overload exists in an exchange standard if one element
of the standard represents more than one ontological construct. Construct redundancy
exists if more than one construct in the standard represents the same ontological
construct. Construct excess exists in a standard when a construct is present
that does not map into any ontological construct. All these analyses will help
to characterise and compare the quality of the selected exchange standards.
The presentation at the SAP Innovation Congress outlined the design of this
research and initial results of an analysis of ebXML as an example for this
type of research.
The main benefit of this research for Enterprise Systems vendors and partners
is a theoretically-based evaluation and comparison of exchange standards resulting
in a structured list of shortcomings and required further development. One other
outcome of this research will also be a more focussed ontology for the interoperability
of Enterprise Applications that can provide a reference model for the future
development of exchange standards.
The proposed project is related to a comprehensive ARC
Discovery project that received funding from the Australian Research Council
for the years 2002-2004 (link to http://www.citi.qut.edu.au/research/itps/projects/ontological.jsp).
The Underlying Ontology
Wand and Weber have developed and refined a set of models for the evaluation
of modelling grammars and the scripts prepared using such grammars. These models
are based on an ontology defined by Bunge [1977] and are referred to as the
Bunge-Wand-Weber (BWW) models. Various researchers have demonstrated the applicability
and usefulness of these models [e.g., Weber & Zhang 1996; Green 1997; Green
& Rosemann 2000].
The Bunge-Wand-Weber (BWW) [Wand & Weber 1990, 1993] models consist of the
representation model, the state-tracking model, and the good decomposition model.
The representation model defines a set of constructs that, at this time, are
thought by Wand and Weber to be necessary and sufficient to describe the structure
and behavior of the real world.
Weber [1997] clarifies two major situations that may occur when an analysis
is conducted according to the representation model. After a particular standard
for Enterprise Systems interoperability has been analyzed, predictions on the
strengths and weaknesses of the standard can be made according to whether some
or any of these situations arise out of the analysis.
1. Ontological Incompleteness (or Construct Deficit) exists unless there is
at least one construct in the interoperability standard for each ontological construct.
2. Ontological Clarity is determined by the extent to which the standard does
not exhibit one or more of the following deficiencies:
- Construct Overload exists in an interoperability standard if one construct represents more than one ontological construct.
- Construct Redundancy exists if more than one construct in the standard represents the same ontological construct.
- Construct Excess exists in an interoperability standard when a construct is present that does not map into any ontological construct.
Approach
The proposed research will consist of two main phases, viz., (sequential) evaluation
of the five standards, and consolidation and integration of results.
In the first phase, Evaluation, this work will be based on, and continue, the
research of Green and Rosemann [2000]. The first activity will be to comprehensively
evaluate the completeness and clarity of ebXML based on the BWW models. This
activity will be using an ER-based meta model for the BWW models that is currently
being developed in the ARC Discovery project. The outcome of this phase will
be an evaluation of the 'ontological goodness' of ebXML including a structured
list of ontological weaknesses. The methodology applied within this phase will
be applied to XBRL, BPML, WSFL and SOAP as well. It is expected that the ontological
analysis of each standard requires two months. This will form the first milestone
eight months after project start.
The second phase, Consolidation and Integration, will cover an entire summary
of all results and their integration into the European IDEAS project. The results
up to this phase will serve as input for the selective development of improvements
for ebXML, XBRL, BPML, WSFL and SOAP in general and its particular use in the
mySAP applications. The last four months of this project will be invested in
performing this second phase.
Research team
Prof Michael Rosemann
Dr Peter Green (University of Queensland)
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