16/11/2011

The Transaction Graph for Requirements Capture in Semantic Enterprise Architecture

Speaker: Ivan Launders
Topic: The Transaction Graph for Requirements Capture in Semantic Enterprise Architecture
Abstract: The aim of this research is to establish that: a transaction graph leads to better understanding of the concepts and relations in transactions and their semantics within enterprise architecture, explained as follows. Enterprise architecture comprises of complex transactional information systems that carry out repetitive and bespoke business transactions to meet business goals.  When enterprise systems transact with each other there needs to be an exchange of meaning through transactions, so that agent A has the same conceptual understanding as agent B in the business transaction. If we accept that agents may not use the same terms to mean the same things, we need a way to discover what another agent means when it transacts. This research presents: The Transaction Graph for Requirements Capture in Semantic Enterprise Architectures, using two separate case studies to outline the steps. Conceptual Graphs are used to capture and to model business transactions and their semantics within enterprise architecture. Using case studies in a health domain and a financial domain this research investigates and develops an approach and design artefacts for the specification of semantics in transactions within enterprise architecture. Model automation is used to provide both accurate semantic and syntactic refinement, aiding the designer to capture semantics through ontology, editing, querying, testing and subsequently specialising. The strategy adopted in this research combines the characteristics of a case study approach to capture contextual conditions with those of action research through the use of multiple case study method. Action research through an interactive inquiry with student design teams provides supporting empirical evidence as a simulation of industrial practice: using six case studies. The primary contributions of this research include an approach to modelling and evaluation of enterprise architecture by the way of transactions and model automation of concepts and relations and their semantics within business transactions.

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