Aligning Modern Business Processes and Legacy Systems: A Component-Based Perspective

231 Pages·2007·4.02 MB·English

by  van den Heuvel W-J.

Aligning Modern Business Processes
and Legacy Systems
A Component-Based Perspective
Willem-Jan van den Heuvel
foreword by Michael L. Brodie
Aligning Modern Business Processes and Legacy Systems
CooperativeInformationSystems
MichaelPapazoglou,JoachimW.Schmidt,andJohnMylopoulos,editors
AdvancesinObject-OrientedDataModeling
MichaelP.Papazoglou,StefanoSpaccapietra,andZahirTari,editors
WorkflowManagement:Models,Methods,andSystems
WilvanderAalstandKeesMaxvanHee
ASemanticWebPrimer
GrigorisAntoniouandFrankvanHarmelen
Meta-ModelingforMethodEngineering
ManfredJeusfeld,MatthiasJarke,andJohnMylopoulos
AligningModernBusinessProcessesandLegacySystems:AComponent-Based
Perspective
Willem-JanvandenHeuvel
Aligning Modern Business Processes and Legacy Systems
AComponent-BasedPerspective
Willem-JanvandenHeuvel
ForewordbyMichaelL.Brodie
TheMITPress
Cambridge,Massachusetts
London,England
©2007MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic
ormechanicalmeans(includingphotocopying, recording, orinformationstorageandretrieval)
withoutpermissioninwritingfromthepublisher.
MITPressbooksmaybepurchasedatspecialquantitydiscountsforbusinessorsalespromo-
tionaluse.Forinformation,[email protected]
Department,TheMITPress,55HaywardStreet,Cambridge,MA02142.
ThisbookwaswassetinTimesRomanandSyntaxbyWindfallSoftware.Printedandboundin
theUnitedStatesofAmerica.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Heuvel,Willem-Janvanden.
Aligningmodernbusinessprocessesandlegacysystems:acomponent-based
perspective/Willem-JanvandenHeuvel.
p.cm.—(Cooperativeinformationsystems)
Includesbibliographicalinformationandindex.
ISBN-13:978-0-262-22079-8(alk.paper)
ISBN-10:0-262-22079-2(alk.paper)
1.Managementinformationsystems. 2.Informationtechnology. 3.Reengineering
(Management). I.Title II.Series.
T58.6.H475 2006
658.4′038011—dc22
2006044923
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Tomywife,Karin,andtomyparents,LambertandMiesvandenHeuvel,
fortheirloveandsupport.

Contents
SeriesForeword ix
ForewordbyMichaelL.Brodie xiii
Preface xv
Acknowledgments xxi
1 SoftwareComponents 1
1.1 WhatComponentsAre(andAreNot) 1
1.2 InterfacesandComponents 2
1.3 AClassificationofComponentInterfaceModels 4
1.4 ComponentInteroperability 9
1.5 BusinessComponents 12
1.6 Web-EnabledComponents:TheSubstrateofWebServices 14
2 LeveragingLegacySystems 21
2.1 LegacySystemsasApplication,Data,andTimeStovepipes 22
2.2 ManagingtheEvolutionofEnterpriseApplications 22
2.3 LegacyPortfolioAnalysis 28
2.4 Wrappers,Connectors,Mediators,Adapters 32
2.5 TheLandscapeofLegacyWrappers 33
2.6 ARoadmapforDevelopingWrappers 37
2.7 ModularizingLegacySystems 38
2.8 ConstructingWSDL/SOAP-BasedWrappers 40
2.9 WrappersinAction:ACaseStudy 42
3 DevelopingEnterpriseApplications 53
3.1 LooselyCoupledversusTightlyCoupledNetworkedEnterprises 53
3.2 SingleOrganizations 55
3.3 NetworkedOrganizations 59
3.4 TowardaMethodologicalFramework 67
4 TheMethodologicalFramework 71
4.1 OverviewoftheMethodologicalFramework 72
4.2 RunningExample 74
viii Contents
4.3 ForwardEngineering 80
4.4 ReverseEngineering 88
4.5 MatchingPhase 93
4.6 AdaptationPhase 100
4.7 RunningExample 101
5 MatchingPhase 103
5.1 StructuralMatching 103
5.2 SemanticMatching 116
5.3 Metamodel-DrivenMatching 131
6 AdaptationPhase 147
6.1 ComponentAdaptation 147
6.2 ParametricContracts 153
6.3 AdapterGeneration 161
7 BeyondtheMethodologicalFramework 171
7.1 AlignmentasaContinuousProcess 171
7.2 ImprovingtheMethodologicalFramework 174
7.3 QuoVadis? 176
Appendix:RunningExample 179
Notes 189
References 191
Index 203
Series Foreword
Thetraditionalviewofinformationsystemsastailor-made,cost-intensivedata-
baseapplicationsischangingrapidly.Thechangeisfueledpartlybyamaturing
software industry, which is making greater use of off-the-shelf generic com-
ponents and standard software solutions, and partly by the onslaught of the
informationrevolution.Inturn,thischangehasresultedinanewsetofdemands
forinformationservicesthatarehomogeneousintheirpresentationandinter-
actionpatterns, openintheirsoftwarearchitecture, andglobalintheirscope.
Thedemandshavecomemostlyfromapplicationdomainssuchase-commerce
andbanking, manufacturing(includingthesoftwareindustryitself), training,
education,andenvironmentalmanagement,tomentionjustafew.
Future information systems will have to support smooth interaction with
a large variety of independent multivendor data sources and legacy applica-
tions, running on heterogeneous platforms and distributed information net-
works.Metadatawillplayacrucialroleindescribingthecontentsofsuchdata
sourcesandinfacilitatingtheirintegration.
As well, a greater variety of community-oriented interaction patterns will
havetobesupportedbynext-generationinformationsystems.Suchinteractions
mayinvolvenavigation,querying,andretrieval,andwillhavetobecombined
with personalized notification, annotation, and profiling mechanisms. Such
interactionswillalsohavetobeintelligentlyinterfacedwithapplicationsoft-
ware and will need to be dynamically integrated into customized and highly
connectedcooperativeenvironments.Moreover,themassiveinvestmentsinin-
formation resources, by governments and businesses alike, calls for specific
measuresthatensuresecurity,privacy,andaccuracyoftheircontents.
Allthesearechallengesforthenextgenerationofinformationsystems.We
callsuchsystemsCooperativeInformationSystems,andtheyarethefocusof
thisseries.
Cooperativeinformationsystemsareservingadiversemixofdemandschar-
acterized by content, community, and commerce. These demands are origi-