Simulating Enterprise Architecture Models
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Transcript of Simulating Enterprise Architecture Models
MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITYLONDON | DUBAI | MAURITIUS
MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITYLONDON | DUBAI | MAURITIUS
Simulating Enterprise Architecture ModelsBalbir S. Barn, Tony Clark (Middlesex University) and Samia OussenaUniversity of West London)
ISEC 2012, Kanpur, February 2012
MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITYLONDON | DUBAI | MAURITIUS
Agenda
• Problems with Enterprise Architecture (EA)
• EA overview and related work
• Concepts for a light-weight method for EA
• The EA method• Case study
• Conclusions
MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITYLONDON | DUBAI | MAURITIUS
EA overview (definitions and use cases)
• “it is a coherent whole of principles, methods, and models that are used in the design and realization of an enterprise’s organizational structure, business processes, information systems and infrastructure” (Lankhorst et al)
• The uses of EA include:– alignment between business functions and IT systems– business change describing the current state of a
business (as-is) and a desired state of a business (to-be)– Ensuring quality (e.g. security, performance)– Acquisition and merger planning– Regulatory compliance
MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITYLONDON | DUBAI | MAURITIUS
EA overview (2)
• Origins in Zachman’s Framework (1999)
• Today often described by large fulsome frameworks such as: TOGAF, DODAF, FEAF
• Accompanying methods are proprietary (e.g. ORACLE, IBM)
• Some emerging DSLs for EA– Notably Archimate (ref): concepts and supporting
notation
MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITYLONDON | DUBAI | MAURITIUS
A missing piece
• How does an EA change to meet a new business requirement?– What impact on what systems? – Support for an equivalence analysis needed
• The current methods and frameworks use layered architectures and do not readily support this type of analysis
• Existing emphasis on SOA as an architectural style
Simulation: Try it and see. A means for meaningful human intervention
MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITYLONDON | DUBAI | MAURITIUS
Combining SOA with Event driven architecture
• Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)– Publication of functionality as interfaces– Interface usage via components (asynchronous/synchronous)
• Event driven architecture (EDA)– Components are event generators and consumers (reduced
coupling)– Scope for Complex Event Processing (business processes
triggered by multiple, possibly temporally related events.
• Combining both approaches provides greater expressivity for dealing with a complex domain such as EA
• This paper addresses the method requirements for this combined approach
MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITYLONDON | DUBAI | MAURITIUS
Key features of the language
MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITYLONDON | DUBAI | MAURITIUS
Model Requirements Define Logical EA
Collate Physical Architecture
Define Physical EA
Define Conformance and Simulate
Configure Physical Architecture
To
be A
nalys
isA
s Is An
alysis
New DSL Technology incorporating:Integrated model for services, events and simulation
Utilize established techniques such as CRC, Use Case Models, Use Case Maps, UML …
Business use case model; Information model;
Business process model;Context Diagram
Current components
Candidate Physical EA
Candidate Logical
Components
Simulation Logical EA(Components,
Interfaces, Events)
Refined Logical EA
Simulation Physical EA
Scope phase
Simulate phase
Candidate Physical EA
Step 1:
Step 2:
Step 3: Step
5:
Step 6:
Method Overview
• Existing methods are:– Large, cumbersome, lacking in agility and precision.
• The LEAP Method:– Has two streams for “as is” / “to be” modelling– Utilises existing, best of breed modelling techniques
Step 4:
MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITYLONDON | DUBAI | MAURITIUS
Case study
• UK Gov requirements on HE Institutions
• Provision of key information to help students make decisions on choice of university to study
MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITYLONDON | DUBAI | MAURITIUS
Step 1: Model Requirements
• Use existing techniques such as those from Catalysis [ref], RUP and Ould [ref] to produce models such as:– Context models– Information Models– Component Specifications
MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITYLONDON | DUBAI | MAURITIUS
Step 2: Define Logical Enterprise Architecture (L-EA)
• A key feature of our approach is to simulate both a logical and physical EA in terms of components, operations and events.
• Simulation language implemented as Java interpreter• Components monitor events raised
by registered components• Components maintain private
state (terms – named records)• Invariants are boolean expressions
defined over the state• Operations implement business
processes• Rules: a collection of patterns
that match terms and events. When all the patterns are matched the rules fire.
• The body of the rule is an action that modifies state or invokes operations
MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITYLONDON | DUBAI | MAURITIUS
Step 2 cont’d: The University component
State
RulesInvariants
MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITYLONDON | DUBAI | MAURITIUS
Using Simulation
Our LEAP language that supports the method also include features for generating a GUI on a web browser
The Control section is used to step through the simulation by sending tick messages to the clock
MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITYLONDON | DUBAI | MAURITIUS
Using Simulation
MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITYLONDON | DUBAI | MAURITIUS
Step 3, 4: Collating and Configuring Physical EA
• Use of existing system overviews to identify organisational systems
• Configuring a Physical EA involves taking an appropriate slice of the EA to that includes just those systems that are likely to be required by the “to be” requirements– Techniques such as Use Case Maps can be
used.
MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITYLONDON | DUBAI | MAURITIUS
Step 5: Define Physical EA
Identified slices of the required components are expressed in LEAP
MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITYLONDON | DUBAI | MAURITIUS
Step 6: Conformance
• Our EA design method produces:– A context, logical and physical EA using the LEAP
language• A single unifying language provides the means to
establish conformance between logical and physical models
• The language can be used to support techniques such as:– Inspection based approaches– Mappings between physical and logical models– Simulation– Model checking and theorem proving
MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITYLONDON | DUBAI | MAURITIUS
Conclusion
• Enterprise Architecture remains a confusing and constantly evolving collection of expansive methods and frameworks that are document based
• This paper has presented an effort to address the core use case “managing change and impact assessment”
• Our effort includes:– A Lightweight method utilising existing techniques– An accompanying language that supports precise
specifications of “as is” and “to be” models– A simulation environment for supporting meaningful
human intervention
MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITYLONDON | DUBAI | MAURITIUS
MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITYLONDON | DUBAI | MAURITIUS
Research areas in MDSE@mdx
Model driven software engineering
User Modelling
EnterpriseArchitecture
Complex Events and
Big Data
Tool Modelling
Modelling for Theory Building
Methodology
Events
Foundations
Tools and Technologies: DSL Building Tools: XModeller
MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITYLONDON | DUBAI | MAURITIUS
World Skills 2011: UK Prime Minister David Cameron
• Product Design Engineering students
• UK Skills Gold Winners• Euroskills Bronze Winners• Balbir/WorldSkills London 2011.m4v