Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Make a series of physical
observations at the
conformance point
The conformance point
location in the delivered
product is stated in the IXIT.
Implementable standards for
the network and transport
implementation are listed in the
technology specification.
Interpret this series of
observations as transport
messages
Interpret the messages to
yield interactions of Basic
Engineering Objects
Middleware mechanisms are
defined in the engineering
specification.
Identify the sequence of
computational object
interactions seen
The correspondences between
engineering and computational
terms establish the mapping.
Confirm that these interactions
are valid in this
computational state
The state is defined in the
computational specification
and is deduced from
previous observations.
The correspondences between
the computational, information
and enterprise specifications
provide the mapping
information.
Identify when each enterprise
step is completed, and what
artefacts are involved
The enterprise object
identities and role
memberships were deduced
from previous observations.
Confirm that the step seen is
valid for the enterprise object
and role involved
FIGURE 8.4: Checking conformance in the enterprise viewpoint.
We now have our observations in terms of a sequence of computational sig-
nals. The next step is to interpret these as operations performed by particular
processes. This is a nontrivial task, since it is necessary to pair-up requests and
responses and disentangle concurrent threads of execution, and it may involve
building up the necessary context by finding suitable correlators, like session
or transaction identifiers. Finally, these computational interactions must be
interpreted using the next set of correspondences to identify the enterprise
interactions and the roles that are responsible for them.
As we move up to progressively more abstract representations, we need
to draw upon knowledge of the context involved that has been acquired by
analysis of earlier observations. In some cases, the initial analysis may be am-
biguous, with further observation being necessary to determine, for example,
which of the roles an object holds is responsible for its rejecting a request.
Of course, anywhere in this chain, the analysis may fail. Such failures
indicate a failure to obey the rules of the view concerned, and so indicate a
