Information Management Standards Ontology's

Mark Skilton
Jul 6, 2007
5 min read

There are few all embracing industry standards to be found .. quote from David Newman Gartner Enterprise Architect Summit07 Nashville.

Federal Enterprise Architecture Data Reference Model Version 2.0 (DRM v2.0)

FEA circa 2002 initiative to get a standards framework for EA

Data fits the FEA framework:

FEA

Performance Reference Model (PRM)
Business reference model (BRM)
Service Component Reference Model (SRM)
Data reference Model (DRM)
Technical Reference Model (TRM)

The important message is that Data needs to be inside the context of the other models, not separate.

DRM

Its free , a meta model for organising different types of content.

DRM is a model describing, at an aggregate level, the data and information that support program and business line operations.

Common data warehouse meta model (CWM) and the Meta Object Facility (MOF)

For structured data

The Object Management Group (OMG) has published a UML data model of its view of metadata. The Common Warehouse Metamodel (CWM) is characterized by the OMG as a "standard ... for meta data interchange in the data warehousing and business analysis environments. CWM provides the long sought -after commmon language for descrribing meta data (based on a generic, but semantically replete, common data warehousing and business analysis domain metamodel)."

In addition, they have published a UML model purporting to be the syntax used to create the CWM. Called the Meta Object Facility, it is "the 'abstract language' for defining different kinds of metadata."

National Information Exchange Model NIEM

Used by Homeland Security

The National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) is an XML-based metadata registry being adopted by U.S. federal agencies for the precise exchange of information.

NIEM is based on a precisely defined data dictionary that uses ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registry standards.

NIEM, the National Information Exchange Model, is a partnership of the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. It is designed to develop, disseminate and support enterprise-wide information exchange standards and processes that can enable jurisdictions to effectively share critical information in emergency situations, as well as support the day-to-day operations of agencies throughout the nation.

NIEM enables information sharing, focusing on information exchanged among organizations as part of their current or intended business practices. The NIEM exchange development methodology results in a common semantic understanding among participating organizations and data formatted in a semantically consistent manner. NIEM will standardize content (actual data exchange standards), provide tools, and managed processes.

NIEM builds on the demonstrated success of the Global Justice XML Data Model. Stakeholders from relevant communities work together to define critical exchanges, leveraging the successful work of the GJXDM.

W3C Resource Description Framework (RDF)

Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a family of World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) specifications originally designed as a metadata model but which has come to be used as a general method of modelling information, through a variety of syntax formats.

The RDF metadata model is based upon the idea of making statements about resources in the form of subject-predicate-object expressions, called triples in RDF terminology. The subject denotes the resource, and the predicate denotes traits or aspects of the resource and expresses a relationship between the subject and the object. For example, one way to represent the notion "The sky has the color blue" in RDF is as a triple of specially formatted strings: a subject denoting "the sky", a predicate denoting "has the color", and an object denoting "blue".

This mechanism for describing resources is a major component in what is proposed by the W3C's Semantic Web activity: an evolutionary stage of the World Wide Web in which automated software can store, exchange, and use machine-readable information distributed throughout the web, in turn enabling users to deal with the information with greater efficiency and certainty. RDF's simple data model and ability to model disparate, abstract concepts has also led to its increasing use in knowledge management applications unrelated to Semantic Web activity.

OWL Web Ontology Language

The OWL Web Ontology Language is designed for use by applications that need to process the content of information instead of just presenting information to humans. OWL facilitates greater machine interpretability of Web content than that supported by XML, RDF, and RDF Schema (RDF-S) by providing additional vocabulary along with a formal semantics. OWL has three increasingly-expressive sublanguages: OWL Lite, OWL DL, and OWL Full.

This document is written for readers who want a first impression of the capabilities of OWL. It provides an introduction to OWL by informally describing the features of each of the sublanguages of OWL. Some knowledge of RDF Schema is useful for understanding this document, but not essential. After this document, interested readers may turn to the OWL Guide for more detailed descriptions and extensive examples on the features of OWL. The normative formal definition of OWL can be found in the OWL Semantics and Abstract Syntax.

ISO 42010.2007 Department of Defence Architecture Framework DoDAF)

The Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF) is a framework for development of a systems architecture or enterprise architecture (EA). All major U.S. Government Department of Defense (DoD) weapons and information technology system procurements are required to develop an EA and document that architecture using the set of views prescribed in the DoDAF. While it is clearly aimed at military systems, it has broad applicability across the private, public and voluntary sectors around the world and represents only one of a large number of systems architecture frameworks. It is especially suited to large systems with complex integration and interoperability challenges, and is apparently unique in its use of "operational views" detailing the external customer's operating domain in which the developing system will operate (ref. Zachman framework).

IEEE 1471-2000 - MDA View Standard

The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) is a framework for Enterprise Architecture which provides a comprehensive approach to the design, planning, implementation, and governance of an enterprise information architecture. The architecture is typically modeled at four levels or domains; Business, Application, Data, Technology. A set of foundation architectures are provided to enable the architecture team to envision the current and future state of the architecture.

The ANSI/IEEE Standard 1471-2000 specification of architecture (of software-intensive systems) may be stated as: "the fundamental organization of a system, embodied in its components, their relationships to each other and the environment, and the principles governing its design and evolution."

However TOGAF has its own view, which may be specified as either a "formal description of a system, or a detailed plan of the system at component level to guide its implementation", or as "the structure of components, their interrelationships, and the principles and guidelines governing their design and evolution over time."

An architecture framework is a toolset which can be used for developing a broad range of different architectures. It should:

describe a methodology for defining an information system in terms of a set of building blocks
show how the building blocks fit together
contain a set of tools
provide a common vocabulary
include a list of recommended standards
include a list of compliant products that can be used to implement the building blocks

TOGAF is such an architecture framework.