Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
international standard, where a single approach is needed to cover a large and
long-lived community of users. The ODP reference model therefore defines
five specific viewpoints (see figure 1.2), intended to appeal to five clear groups
of users of a whole family of standards.
Your
Business
Enterprise
Your
Software
Design
Your
Information
Your
System
Your
Technology
Your
Middleware
FIGURE 1.2: The five ODP viewpoints.
These five viewpoints are each the subject of a subsequent chapter, but
they are introduced briefly here, concentrating on the broad objectives and
areas of concern they cover.
The enterprise viewpoint focuses on the organizational situation in
which the design activity is to take place. It concentrates on the objectives,
business rules and policies that need to be supported by the system being
designed. The stakeholders to be satisfied are therefore the owners of the
business processes being supported and the managers responsible for the set-
ting of operational policies. The emphasis is on business and social units and
their interdependencies.
Note that the use of the word enterprise here is intended to cover any ac-
tivity of interest; an enterprise can be whatever the specifiers have been tasked
to describe. It can be a single product and its users, or a commercial organi-
zation, or a larger social structure involving many corporate or governmental
entities. It captures whatever field of application we are currently focusing
upon in this particular design activity.
