Valeria De Antonellis

Ontology-based methodology for e-service discovery

Service discovery is a critical aspect in the Service Oriented Computing approach. A model, a methodology and a tool environment based on ontologies are proposed in this paper. The requester and provider perspectives are discussed, both to support the service publication phase and the search phase. The proposed service ontology is based on functional aspects and it is organized on three layers, to support traditional search based on classification such as proposed in UDDI as well as search based on abstracting service characteristics. In addition, nonfunctional features such as requester and provider contexts and quality of service are considered to refine the search results according to the requester requirements.

Flexible Semantic-Based Service Matchmaking and Discovery

Automated techniques and tools are required to effectively locate services that fulfill a given user request in a mobility context. To this purpose, the use of semantic descriptions of services has been widely motivated and recommended for automated service discovery under highly dynamic and context-dependent requirements. Our aim in this work is to propose an ontology-based hybrid approach where different kinds of matchmaking strategies are combined together to provide an adaptive, flexible and efficient service discovery environment. The approach, in particular, exploits the semantic knowledge about the business domain provided by a domain ontology underlying service descriptions, and the semantic organization of services in a service ontology, at different levels of abstraction.

A methodology and tool environment for process analysis and reengineering

Abstract Most private and public organizations have recently turned their attention to the process by which they operate, to improve service and product quality and customer satisfaction. To support business process reengineering, methods and tools for process modeling and analysis are required. The paper presents the ARTEMIS methodology and associated tool environment for business process analysis for reengineering. In the ARTEMIS methodological framework, business processes are modeled as workflows and are analyzed according to an organizational structure perspective and an operational structure perspective. With these two perspectives, the analyst can plan reengineering interventions based on the degree of autonomy/dependency of organization units in terms of coupling, and the inter-process semantic correspondences, in terms of data and operation similarity, respectively. The ARTEMIS methodology and associated tool environment have been conceived and applied in the framework of the PROGRESS research project. In the paper, we report on a reengineering case study of this project involving the Italian Ministry of Justice.

Classifying and Reusing Conceptual Schemas

The paper presents a methodological approach to guide the application engineer to construct a Library of Entity-Relationship schemas, classified by means of indexing criteria and clustering techniques, and to extract reusable components from the existing selected schemas. Reusable components are defined as generic entities with associated meta-entities providing guidelines for reuse in a given application. Generic entities are derived from the analysis of the entities belonging to similar schemas within clusters of the Library. A set of reuse guidelines in form of meta-entities are given, suggesting how generic entities can be modified and tailored according to the needs of the application to be developed.

A multi-perspective framework for web API search in enterprise mashup design

Enterprise mashups are agile applications which combine enterprise resources with other external applications or web services, by selecting and aggregating Web APIs provided by third parties. In this paper, we provide a framework based on different Web API features to support Web API search and reuse in enterprise mashup design. The framework operates according to a novel perspective, focused on the experience of web designers, who used the Web APIs to develop enterprise mashups. This new perspective is used jointly with other Web API search techniques, relying on classification features, like categories and tags, and technical features, like the Web API protocols and data formats. This enables designers, who as humans learn by examples, to exploit the collective knowledge which is based on past experiences of other designers to find the right Web APIs for a target application. We also present a preliminary evaluation of the framework.

A Discovery-Based Approach to Database Ontology Design

In this paper, we introduce an approach to task-driven ontology design which is based on information discovery from database schemas. Techniques for semi-automatically discovering terms and relationships used in the information space, denoting concepts, their properties and links are proposed, which are applied in two stages. At the first stage, the focus is on the discovery of heterogeneity/ambiguity of data representations in different schemas. For this purpose, schema elements are compared according to defined comparison features and similarity coefficients are evaluated. This stage produces a set of candidates for unification into ontology concepts. At the second stage, decisions are made on which candidates to unify into concepts and on how to relate concepts by semantic links. Ontology concepts and links can be accessed according to different perspectives, so that the ontology can serve different purposes, such as, providing a search space for powerful mechanisms for concept location, setting a basis for query formulation and processing, and establishing a reference for recognizing terminological relationships between elements in different schemas.

A framework for expressing semantic relationships between multiple information systems for cooperation

Abstract After many years of information systems development, most private and public organizations are characterized by the presence of multiple information systems, possibly distributed and heterogeneous. Heterogeneity is generally related to representation languages, support technology, and evolution strategies. The result can be a deep disintegration of data and processes spread in several information systems. Methods and tools for the analysis and comparison of the existing information systems are required, to identify replication, overlapping, bad distribution of data and processes among the existing systems, to set the basis for reengineering activities. This paper proposes computer-based techniques for the analysis of multiple information systems. Following an inherently data-oriented approach, conceptual descriptions of processes are analyzed focusing on characteristics of data manipulated and exchanged and on operations performed by processes. The proposed techniques rely on similarity criteria and metrics and on a semantic dictionary, where the knowledge on process data and operations is properly organized. Process descriptions are analyzed for the aspects related to information and operation similarity, to evaluate semantic correspondences between processes and identify activity replication and overlapping, as well as for the aspects related to interaction/cooperation, to evaluate the degree of coupling between processes and identify the type and the nature of exchanged information flows. Experimental results of applying the analysis techniques to the information systems of the Italian Public Administration are discussed.

The F 3 reuse environment for requirements engineering

The F3 reuse environment for supporting the Requirements Engineering process is illustrated and discussed in the paper. In particular, an overview of our approach for building reusable components from existing requirements and for exploiting them in the development of new applications is presented. The approach is based on classification techniques to facilitate extraction of reusable components, and on transformation techniques to support composition of reusable components.

A methodology for e-service substitutability in a virtual district environment

A virtual district is defined as a consortiumof independent member enterprises which operate in an integrated and organic way to exploit business opportunities. Such enterprises cooperate to achieve common goals following agreed upon cooperative processes. Considering a cooperative process as a set of activities performed by e-Services provided by the different enterprises, this work studies the compatibility among e-Services to support the dynamic substitution of failed or modified e-Services. The methodology takes into account both syntactic and semantic analysis, using a domain ontology to match the different terminology used by the different e-Service providers.

Analysis of an inventory of information systems in the public administration

The paper deals with the problem of building an inventory of information systems for the public administration, with reference to an ongoing project in Italy. We describe the investigation techniques defined for collecting information and the techniques developed for a systematic analysis of the large set of conceptual schemas resulting from the investigation. These schemas describe the data used by the public administration work processes. In particular, we describe the conceptual schema of the inventory, which is the basis for discussing the methodology of investigation, the choice of units of investigation, the data collection and merging, and the access to information. Then, we present the schema analysis techniques developed to analyse semi-automatically the large set of conceptual schemas resulting from the investigation. In particular, we illustrate indexing techniques for identifying representative descriptors of schemas and similarity techniques to compare schemas for their classification into families. Finally, the tool developed to support the storage, analysis and classification of schemas is described and experimentation results are discussed.