Shyh-Kwei Chen

Model driven development for business performance management

Business process integration and monitoring provides an invaluable means for an enterprise to adapt to changing conditions. However, developing such applications using traditional methods is challenging because of the intrinsic complexity of integrating large-scale business processes and existing applications. Model Driven DevelopmentTM (MDDTM) is an approach to developing applications-from domain-specific models to platform-sensitive models-that bridges the gap between business processes and information technology. We describe the MDD framework and methodology used to create the IBM Business Performance Management (BPM) solution. We describe how we apply model-driven techniques to BPM and present a scenario from a pilot project in which these techniques were applied. Technical details on models and transformation are presented. Our framework uses and extends the IBM business observation metamodel and introduces a data warehouse metamodel and other platform-specific and transformational models. We discuss our lessons learned and present the general guidelines for using MDD to develop enterprise-scale applications.

Complex Event Processing using Simple Rule-based Event Correlation Engines for Business Performance Management

Event correlation is an important component in business performance management. Simple rule-based event correlation engines, like Zurich Correlation Engine (ZCE), usually accept input events that include only name-value pairs. However, when input events are in XML format, the ZCE needs to be adapted to accept complex/structural events. In this paper, we present a model-driven approach to derive solutions for adapting the new type of events, so that the light weight correlation engine can still be used for event monitoring and correlation

A practical approach to Web-based Internet EDI

In traditional business environments, many inter-company processes (such as buying and billing) are performed using paper documents, such as purchase orders and invoices. Electronic data interchange (EDI) allows companies to exchange these documents in a structured and computer-processable format. This helps to automate and streamline business by eliminating or simplifying clerical tasks, speeding information transfer, reducing data errors, and eliminating business processes. Although EDI has been successfully employed in specific industries (such as retail) and in some large enterprises, it has not been widely adopted. The primary barriers to widespread acceptance of EDI are the costs of implementation and the costs of communication, which is frequently done using value-added networks (VANs). These costs are generally too high for companies that do not conduct large numbers of EDI transactions. We introduce a Web-based Internet EDI model that provides valued-added functions traditionally provided by EDI over VANs. In this model, users conduct business transactions using Java-capable browsers instead of traditional EDI software, eliminating the costs of VANs and EDI-related applications.

Model-Driven Dashboards for Business Performance Reporting

Business performance modeling and model-driven business transformation are two research directions that are attracting much attention lately. In this study, we propose an approach for dashboard development that is model-driven and can be integrated with the business performance models. We adopt the business performance modeling framework, and we extend it in order to capture the reporting aspect of the business operation. We describe models that can effectively represent all the elements necessary for the business performance reporting process, and the interactions among them. We also demonstrate how all these models can be combined and automatically generate the final solution. Finally, we discuss our experience from the application of our technique in a real-world scenario. This case study shows that our technique can be efficiently applied to and handle changes in the underlying business models, delivering significant benefits in terms of both development time and flexibility

Enterprise integration and monitoring solution using active shared space

This paper describes on architecture and framework for business process transformation and monitoring, using active shared space along with business process solution composer, for achieving the above goals. This framework treats business data and business services as the first class citizens. The central notions of this framework are business artifacts and business services both of which users can exploit to define the key business data and performance indicators. There are producers and consumers of business artifacts and business services for the shared data space. Underlying services and data graphs can be configured in such a way that the service invocation and data mediation can be fully automated via the active shared space without human intervention. Active shared space advocates new programming paradigm that enables business level monitoring and business process execution based upon the definitions of business artifacts, business services and data graph. The architecture of the active shared space is detailed in this paper. A reference implementation is given for the sake of validation and discussion

A practical approach to extracting DTD-conforming XML documents from heterogeneous data sources

XML documents are becoming popular for business process integration. To achieve interoperability between applications, XML documents must also conform to various commonly used data type definitions (DTDs). However, most business data are not maintained as XML documents. They are stored in various native formats, such as database tables or LDAP directories. Hence, a middleware is needed to dynamically generate XML documents conforming to predefined DTDs from various data sources. As industrial consortia and large corporations have created various DTDs, it is both challenging and time-consuming to design the necessary middleware to conform to so many different DTDs. This problem is particularly acute for a small- or medium-sized enterprise because it lacks the IT skills to quickly develop such a middleware. In this paper, we present XLE, an XML Lightweight Extractor, as a practical approach to dynamically extracting DTD-conforming XML documents from heterogeneous data sources. XLE is based on a framework called DTD source annotation (DTDSA). It treats a DTD as the control structure of a program. The annotations become the program statements, such as functions and assignments. DTD-conforming XML documents are generated by parsing annotated DTDs. Basically, DTD annotations describe declaratively the mappings between target XML documents and the source data. The XLE engine implements a few basic annotations, providing a practical solution for many small- and medium-sized enterprises. However, XLE is designed to be versatile. It allows sophisticated users to plug in their own implementations to access new types of data or to achieve better performance. Heterogeneous data sources can be simply specified in the annotations. A GUI tool is provided to highlight the places where annotations are needed.

User Controllable Data Grouping for Business Document Translation

Business document translation is a critical business activity that is essential for business process integration. To achieve interoperability among enterprise applications, common document formats or standards must be followed across business entities, e.g., the legacy electronic data interchange (EDI) and the popular extensible Markup Language (XML). Based on the document object model (DOM), both source and target documents can be visualized as structural trees. Naturally, document translation involves a tree traversal process (for source) and a tree creation process (for target). However, data grouping problem occurs when there are multiple items of the same type (or XML tag) and there is a need to group items differently. The normal document translation process may need to traverse the source DOM trees multiple times due to the ambiguities associated with the process. In this paper, we propose a document translation mechanism that performs a tree traversal over the source tree structure in one pass and automatically creates a target tree structure based upon user-defined rules. For certain grouping options that may cause ambiguity during the translation process, our approach requires just an additional pass over the target tree structure.

A practical experience in workspace separation for developing multiple storefronts on customized commerce engines

In this paper, we describe our experience in separating workspaces, using the IBM VisualAge for Java development tool, for multiple web storefronts development for several major IBM public and private commerce sites. There was a need to create multiple workspaces since different storefronts may be developed at the same time. In addition, we wanted to keep the completed software packages for compatibility checking. Instead of tuning the current program setting to a desired mixed-version environment for each project, we generate a dedicated workspace by applying dependency analysis. New icons are created to conveniently invoke the development tool under different software packages and workspaces. We also present a systematic approach to facilitate the generation of a plan with instruction steps to produce new workspaces for their dedicated and required resources.