May
2003
Issue: 28
May
2003
Issue: 28
Journal of Conceptual Modeling
www.inconcept.com/jcm
Editor's Corner
by Patrick Hallock
Since the last issue of the JCM several important events and projects have been including DAMA International, OMG Business Rules SIG, InConcept, a new book, the Haley “Authorete” rules engine and nifty little tool for Visio shapes.
First as all our readers know Terry Halpin is one of our foremost contributors. His work over the past 20 years has now been recognized by DAMA International.
DAMA International
Individual Achievement Award
From its inception in 1989 through 2002, The DAMA Individual Achievement Awards have recognized a data professional who has made significant, demonstrable contributions to the information resource management industry consistent with DAMA International's vision. Here is the DAMA citation for the award.
Academic Achievement Award
To a member from academia for
outstanding research or theoretical contributions in the area of IRM/DRM
After several years in industry, he has returned to academia in his VP position at North Face Learning, where he is developing curricula to facilitate application development using a business rules approach to informatics. He is a member of IFIP WG 8.1 (Design and Evaluation of Information Systems), is an editor or reviewer for several academic journals and international program committees, has co-chaired several international workshops on modeling, and has presented at dozens of international conferences in both industry and academia. For many years, his research has focused on conceptual modeling and conceptual query technology for information systems, using a business rules approach. His doctoral thesis formalized Object-Role Modeling (ORM/NIAM), and his publications include over 100 technical papers, and four books, including Information Modeling and Relational Databases, Morgan Kaufmann (2001). He is currently co-authoring a new book on database modeling, and co-editing another book on research issues in modeling methodologies, both to be published in 2003.
In American -
"Way to go!"
In Australian - "Good-on Yah" (that is about all I know in Australian)
As an additional observation, I noticed that there were more presenters that either included slides referring to ORM or referred to ORM as part of their verbal presentations. This is very encouraging, as others are beginning to express interest.
Terry does not have an article for this issue. The article series that he was presenting is stopping since the new book covers all of that material. He is also extremely busy creating works for the OMG Business Rules SIG, creating the curriculum for NorthFace Learning and others issues as well. He will begin a new series of articles with the next issue of the JCM. we certainly do not want to see him overloaded to the point of exhaustion.
OMG Business Rules Special Interest Group (SIG)
The business rules SIG is currently authoring an RFP to the OMG for the creation of a business rules definition. One of the main features is a natural language rules definition. Natural language in this case is a structured well-defined language, not casual conversation languages. Object Role Modeling (ORM) is a strong candidate in this area. ORM already provides for the definition of many static rules. At issue are the dynamic business rules. Therefore, work in now under way to extend ORM for dynamic rules as well. The RFP is almost ready for presentation as the specification refinements are almost done. The RFP is then presented to the OGM for approval after which various vendors can propose implementations. Due to ow the OGM receives and approves such proposals, the materials are presented at one meeting and then votes on at the proposal at the next meeting which is three months later.
At the SIG meetings several vendors of rules engines are part of the group. They seem to agree that the conceptual layer (CIM) is useful as long as there is a standard translation from the conceptual layer to the platform independent layer (PIM). They can then translate the interface into their specific product. The CIM, Computational Independent Model, provides the formatted information to the PIM, the Platform Independent Model. The idea being the CIM can provide an interface to any number of PIMs. The vendors are then free to choose their specific implementation. Some examples are Java based or SQL based solutions to business rules. The proposal and approval appear to be scheduled for later this year. Once this is done, the marketplace can get busy and build compliant tools.
Haley “AuthoRete”
AuthoRete (pronounced authority) is really Author + “RETE”, where “rete” is the artificial intelligence “rete” engine. The product is an Object Role Modeling based rules engine. We have looked at product and can plainly see the connection between their language based rules expression and ORM. Their site is www.Haley.com.
The rules definition is done by specifying parts of speech such as nouns, verbs and adverbs. These are organized into facts. Once the vocabulary is established a person can express rules in a very comfortable natural language. The developer workstation plus the rules engine server make-up the product offering. It seems to be a good fit for those people who like a natural language approach and it is available. If anyone reads this that uses this approach, it would be interesting to hear from you and your opinions.
At last – the “How-to Book”
After al lot of work the book “Database Modeling with Microsoft Visio for Enterprise Architects” has been completed and off to Morgan Kaufmann Publishers. The authors were Terry Halpin, Ken Evans, Patrick Hallock and Bill Mclean. The book is expected out June. The following exert are the first two paragraphs of the preface:
This book explains how to model databases with Microsoft® Visio for Enterprise Architects (VEA). Although primarily focused on tool features, the book also provides an introduction to data modeling, and includes practical advice on managing database projects. The book’s four authors have all used VEA extensively in industrial database projects, and the principal author worked on the design of VEA’s database modeling solutions.
Unlike most other database design tools, VEA allows you to model data at a truly conceptual level, using a fact-based approach known as Object-Role Modeling (ORM). For conceptual information analysis, ORM has many advantages over other methods such as Entity-Relationship modeling (ER). ORM’s attribute-free approach facilitates model validation by verbalization and population, and it helps to minimize the impact of changes to the application domain. Moreover, ORM diagrams can graphically display many more business rules than other approaches.
This was an adventure into things most of us never get to do. On behalf of the other authors and myself we thank Terry for including us this effort.
VisiNotes from Visimation
If you need a place to put special notes while modeling ORM in Visio you should know that every shape in Visio has three available fields for notes. The VisiNotes tool from Visimation is a Visio add-in allowing you access to these fields to write or read. This means you do not have to use the 'shape sheet' display to enter data. If you are looking to add some notes of interest about various objects, or predicates you highlight the shape and select Visinotes to enter or read your entries. It is free after all. Make an agreement with team members as to the content for each of the three notes and go for it. For example, maybe Note 1, is the owner and steward of the object or fact. These text fields hold enough text to make them useful.
Thanks all, see you again at the end of this summer. By then the book is out, the OMG Business Rules SIG should have a public RFP available and advances in the dynamic rules definition should have some shape to it.
Pat Hallock