Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
their component specifications without ever stating clearly how these should
interrelate.
The authors of the RM-ODP took great care to select a small set of view-
points that deals with the stakeholders commonly found when creating and
managing large distributed systems. They avoided the temptation to add
complexity by defining further viewpoints covering other less general concerns.
They also excluded unnecessary constraints on the way viewpoint specifica-
tions were to be structured.
The origins of the reference model as a framework for standardization
helped its developers draw on expertise from the different stakeholder areas
to ensure that each of the different viewpoint languages used the concepts
familiar to the teams producing that kind of standard. However, the writers
left flexibility within the viewpoint languages for users to select any appro-
priate notation and methodology, without imposing unnecessary taxonomic
constraints (such as mandatory use of a single set of dimensions) across all
the viewpoints.
The reference model is unique in having a well-developed and coherent
explanation of viewpoint correspondences, ensuring a consistent set of specifi-
cations and laying the foundation for an integrated tool chain. It also provides
a clear framework for the expression and assessment of compliance and confor-
mance, which is critical in a world where enterprise systems and applications
are not developed and maintained by isolated teams, but composed of multiple
models, applications and systems sourced from other companies.
Each of the viewpoint languages contains a precise set of modelling con-
cepts developed based on sound theoretical and engineering foundations,
drawn from both the organizational and distributed systems fields. It is the
combination of such organizational and technical concepts, and the correspon-
dence between these, that makes the ODP framework an excellent choice to
support the expression of various interoperability requirements from separate
perspectives, and at different levels of abstraction.
Supporting concepts and mechanisms such as transparencies, federation
and contracts also becomes essential for achieving smooth interoperability
between enterprise systems. This is particularly important where it involves
the crossing of boundaries between organizations or jurisdictions, needing the
exchange of information, provision of services and linking of processes in order
to do business with other enterprises.
Finally, the fact that the RM-ODP is an international standard ensures
vendor independence and long-lived specifications. These aspects are espe-
cially important for protecting the investment required for the adoption of
any enterprise framework. When augmented with strong links to the widely
used UML notation and tools based on it, they are precisely the strengths of-
fered by a mature framework such as the RM-ODP. In addition, the reference
model itself can be exploited and tailored for new standardization develop-
ments, such as the establishment of architecture frameworks and foundations
