... for seamless semantic interoperability relate to both
content and independence.
The content requirements can be characterised in terms of
width, range and diversity.
The semantic content for any particular enterprise application
comes as a piece - its meaning depending on how the parts
of the piece link together. So the specification of the content
has to span this width. A simplistic example. The semantics
of a foreign exchange trading application has to include
a reasonably complete range of the objects that are involved
in that type of enterprise. It would make no sense to specify
the concept of a foreign exchange trade without some link
to the concept of the dealer who makes the trade.
Interoperability also has to cater for the ways in which
processes range across domains. The payment of a particular
premium an insurance application might also appear as a deduction
in a payroll application and a transfer between accounts
in a banking application. The specification of content has
to span, at least to some extent, the range of aspects that
a object appearing in one application can acquire in other
applications - if these applications are to interoperate.
If interoperability is to be able to cater for different
enterprises with different ways of doing business, it cannot
prescribe a one size fits all regime - a single standard
for everyone. It needs to be able to account for at least
some of the diversity in practice that currently exists -
and allow different kinds of diversity to evolve in the future.
The independence requirements can be characterised as eliminating
any unnecessary dependence on any non-semantic aspects of specific
implementations
So the specification of semantic content needs to be independent
of the particular characteristics of any enterprises' systems
- such as; architecture, applications, and technologies.
Changing the application architecture, or removing (or replacing)
a particular enterprise application within the architecture,
or introducing a new technology should have no impact on
the semantic specification.
A more difficult requirement, is the need to be independent
of particular business models. So if an enterprise with a
new, different, business model needs to interoperate - the
semantic specification should not need enhancing.
The extent to which these requirements are met will determine
the agility with which an enterprise can redeploy its applications
in response to a changing business environment.
... mainly relate to facilitating the implementation of the
new approach. Before people will sanction a new way of working,
they need to be persuaded that there is a benefit in doing
so. Before they can start working productively in this new
way, they need to understand and acquire some experience of
how this is done. BORO recognises that this is necessarily
part of its remit.
