Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The trend is continued in a recent multi-part standard ISO 12967: Health
Informatics | Service Architecture (HISA) that provides an architectural
framework for healthcare informatics, which gives a set of ODP viewpoint
specications for service denition and integration [6{8]. Its aim is to pro-
vide a single approach that unifies the integration of new developments and
commercial off-the-shelf products with existing legacy systems, so there is a
strong emphasis of federation. Each part of the standard addresses one of the
ODP viewpoints.
Turning to other architectural standards, the reference model for ODP is
called out in IEEE 1471 (and in its successor, ISO 42010) as a prime example
of a framework complying with the viewpoint-based architectural descriptions
it prescribes. In fact, the RM-ODP and these two standards for architectural
description have had a significant influence on each other, and the groups con-
cerned have maintained strong, active liaison to achieve consistency between
them.
The use of the RM-ODP continues in new work; a notable piece of work
in progress within ISO is concerned with the standardization of a metamodel
framework for interoperability, which is underway in ISO/IEC JTC1 SC32 .
This work is basing its description of services on the ODP metamodels, and is
likely to be exploited in further work on service equivalence in service-oriented
and cloud computing.
These are just a few of the ways the RM-ODP continues to influence and
support a broad range of standardization activities.
16.4 Tools
There are several UML tools that offer UML4ODP capabilities. For in-
stance, No Magic's MagicDraw is a popular commercial UML tool, which we
used to develop the UML4ODP standard and which has also been used to
draw the various UML diagrams in this topic. The Spanish team involved in
RM-ODP standardization developed a plug-in for this product, information
about which can be found at
http://www.magicdraw.com/uml4odp_plugin
.
The plug-in adds a custom menu item called RM-ODP, which provides access
to the basic ODP diagram templates and to some model checking tools. It
presents a custom ODP palette for each of the ODP diagram types, allowing
easy drag-and-drop diagram creation. The plug-in is easily installed with the
UML tool's resource and plug-in manager, which is accessed from the tool's
help menu.
Sparx System's Enterprise Architect is another UML tool with which you
can add ODP functionality. After installing the ODP capability, users can
draw UML4ODP-based diagrams. Further information can be found at
http:
//www.sparxsystems.com.au/products/3rdparty/odp/index.html
. There
