A major thank-you to our Berlin TC sponsors: No Magic, Prismtech, Accelare, Sparx Systems, Remedy IT, Modeliosoft, EADS, and Transentis.  

During the week, the Business Process Model and Notation Model Interchange Working Group (BPMN MIWG) successfully demonstrated the smooth interchange of BPMN models. In total, five vendors of BPMN-based products participated with seven different tools in the demonstration. As OMG is fully committed to product portability and interoperability, we are thrilled that BPMN MIWG has proven that goal. The group is planning to do another demonstration at OMG's TC in Reston, VA next March. For the most up-to-date information on future demonstrations, be sure to visit www.omgwiki.org/bpmn-miwg/doku.php. 

The Model Interchange Architecture Board Special Interest Group (MISIG) was also chartered at the Berlin meeting. MISIG will demonstrate model interchange among tools that implement OMG modeling languages (ie: Unified Modeling Language, Business Process Model and Notation, etc). It will define and publish test suites for interchange testing that will identify and resolve interchange issues associated with specifications and vendor implementations. 

Also meeting during the week was the Software-Defined Networking (SDN) Working Group. This was the third meeting for the group which was only formed at the Reston, VA meeting this past March. To find out about upcoming meetings and work done by the SDN Working Group, visit www.omg.org/sdn.  

The week was chock-full of special events for a wide range of industries. Following a successful run at the Reston, VA meeting in March, was the "European Business Architecture Innovation Summit" (cohosted by the Business Architecture Guild and sponsored by OpenText and Troux). The summit- which specialized in Europe's unique business situation- was as equally productive as its state-side counterpart. Speakers from all over the world discussed the use and success of business architecture within the financial, insurance, manufacturing, transportation, healthcare, agribusiness and service industries. The summit included presentations from leading industry experts as well as an authors' panel discussion.   

Also taking place was the "Data Distribution Service (DDS)- the Intelligent Systems Backbone" event which was sponsored by Prismtech and  Real-Time Innovations. The DDS event was an opportunity to exhibit the

specification's flourishing applications. You can read about DDS's various uses in the article below titled, "Learn More About: DDS" or visit www.omg.org/hot-topics/dds.htm. 

The "Summit on Evolving an Open E-Health Platform" (cosponsored by HL7 International and HL7 Germany) proved to be an interesting day as healthcare professionals discussed the increased use of e-health in the field. Speakers presented case studies from healthcare institutions from all over the world including: Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. 

Finally, the Consortium for IT Software Quality (CISQ) hosted an event to spread the message of the importance of quality software as well as tout the OMG Automated Function Point (AFP) standard which CISQ helped to adopt. More information on AFP can be found below. To learn more about other standards CISQ has helped adopt, visit www.it-cisq.org/standards-page. 

RFCs, RFIs, and RFPs Issued

At the Berlin meeting, the OMG Domain Technology Committee issued: 

• Request For Proposal for the Finite State Machine Component
  for RTC (FSM44RTC); and
• Request For Information for the Hardware Abstraction Layer for Robots. 

Details of these Requests and all other OMG Technology Adoption
Processes currently underway will be made available at http://www.omg.org/public_schedule.

Technologies Adopted

In addition, the Board voted to adopt three technical submissions
and reports. These include: 

• The Foundation for the Agile Creation and Enactment of Software Engineering Models (FACESEM)
• Interaction Flow Modeling Language (IFML)
• Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Rules (SBVR) 1.1

These specifications will be made available to the public for free download at www.omg.org. 

Next Meeting: New Brunswick, NJ, USA September 23rd-27th 

We're heading to New Brunswick, NJ, USA for our September technical meeting! The meeting will take place from September 23rd-27th at the Hyatt Regency!

The week will be filled with numerous special events including the below: 


 

• The Consortium for IT Software Quality (CISQ) seminar- (Wednesday, September 25th) Spotlighting the OMG Automated Function Point standard (which was proposed by the OMG-managed CISQ consortium), the seminar will focus on using software measures in productivity and quality improvement programs. 
• Semantics in the Finance Industry- (Wednesday, September 25th) This all-day event will stress the importance of employing financial data semantics in business operations as well as spotlight case studies of multinational financial service corporations that have had great success in using semantics. 
• An event focused on The Internet of Things, also called Industrial Internet, Machine-to-Machine, and Cyber-Physical Systems.

Jenny Huang is the Strategic Standards Convener at AT&T Inc. She has been an actiive member of OMG since 1999. We sat down with Jenny to discuss her experience as an OMG member. 

OMG: Hi Jenny! When did you become a member of OMG?

JH: I became a member of the OMG in 1999. My first attendance was in 1999 on behalf of the omniORB project by AT&T Cambridge Lab. The omniORB project was one of the first three recipients that were awarded by the Open Group for its "Open Brand for CORBA" initiative.  

OMG: What was it about OMG that encouraged you to become a member? 

JH: The core competency of OMG is about software interoperability and Model Driven Architecture (MDA). These standards reduce the risks of vendor lock-in as well as provide the rigors in software development lifecycle that enable solution architectures that are designed by using MDA methodologies and specifications that can sustain the technology changes over time. 

As the Telecommunication industry has moved towards more and more software enabled services, it is important for AT&T to be at the front line leveraging IT best practices and to help develop the standards that fulfill special requirements for the entire Telecom industry.  

OMG: How has being an OMG member been beneficial for you and/or AT&T?

JH: Being a member of the OMG allows AT&T access to many of the IT and Business architecture experts as well as system architects from vertical domains, such as [the] Healthcare and Financial industries. It also allows us to gain insights into vendor product strategies, usually two-three years before the products are available to the public.  

OMG: What has been a highlight for you during your membership? 

JH: AT&T won the CIO award in 2008 for its implementation of Model Driven Architecture based on OMG standards and methodologies. [You can visit http://www.cio.com/cio100/detail/1806 for more information]

OMG: Can you give me a bit more detail what you are currently participating in at the OMG?

JH: Currently I am representing AT&T in several of the OMG working groups; I lead the Telecom Special Interest group, as well as represent AT&T requirements/interests in the Business Modeling Integration group and the Cloud Standards Customer Council (CSCC). I am also active in OMG liaison activities with other industry groups to bring standards alignment among OMG and other software standards organizations that AT&T is also a valued contributor of, such as the TM Forum. 

OMG: Why are the current standards you are working on so important and why should they be created?

JH:  The Telecom SIG is currently developing the TelcoML specification, [which] brings APIs that are developed by various Telecom standards groups into the same level of abstraction using OMG SoaML standards. TelcoML enables service providers and developers to design services using capabilities from multiple sets of APIs without costly internal mapping and integration efforts they would have to incur otherwise without standards.

We are looking at the Business Modeling Integration group (BMI) to help address some of the business risk analysis and business strategy modeling challenges, especially in an environment that we need to collaborate with multiple stakeholders both internally and externally for service creation, delivery and management such as the Cloud ecosystem. The specific work that we have been participating/monitoring for this purpose are the Value Delivery Modeling (VDM) and Decision Model Notation (DMN) work.

Cloud has been a highly competive but not yet fully matured industry; as many of the challenges are not technical but require the analysis of business strategy from both buyers and providers. The OMG CSCC provides an environment for such discussion and analysis possible for both the buyers and suppliers.

In summary, AT&T has utilized OMG membership to ensure that we are always on top of new trends in IT technologies and new challenges. We adopt IT best practices where they are applicable to increase the agility of our service creation, service delivery and service management.

Interested in sharing your OMG experience with us? Email Julie Pike at julie@omg.org. 

Other Resources

For more information on OMG or any of our advocacy groups, such as the CSCC or CISQ, visit us online.  Members should sign up for their own personal myOMG page to access and manage your email lists, submissions and interests.

Did You Know...

That we have several RSS feeds on the OMG website? Visit us online to subscribe!
 

Win a Samsung Galaxy Tab! Take the Member Value Survey!

We appreciate all of the time and effort all of you- our members- contribute in the standardization process. We want to ensure that every one of you is getting the maximum value out of your membership: no matter what membership level your organization has! 

The survey will only take about 10-15 minutes of your time to complete. Click here to take the Member Value Survey. Survey respondents will have their names entered into a raffle to win a Samsung Galaxy Tab. The winning entry will have his/her name chosen at the New Brunswick, NJ TC reception on Wednesday, September 25, 2013. Winners do not need to be present. Only one entry/survey per member. 

Recent Adoptions: Case Management Model and Notation (CMMN) 1.0 Beta 

In May, the OMG Board voted to adopt the Case Management Model and Notation (CMMN) 1.0 Beta specification. The standard will go through the OMG finalization process in the coming months.

CMMN 1.0 defines a common meta-model and notation for modeling and graphically expressing a case, as well as an interchange format for exchanging case models among different tools. The standard is intended to capture the common elements that case management products use, while also taking into account current research contributions on case management. It will be to case management products what the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) specification is to business process management products. 

"The Case Management Model and Notation (CMMN) specification expands the boundaries of what can be accomplished with BPMN by incorporating knowledge worker driven adaptive work. Now customers can address a much broader spectrum of processes using a combination of BPMN and CMMN," said Ralf Mueller, Architect at Oracle and co-chair of the CMMN Finalization Task Force. "We are pleased to be working with OMG and other members to drive CMMN as it aligns with our strategy of supporting the complete spectrum of processes in a standards-compliant fashion." 

Like all OMG-adopted standards, CMMN is available for free download by the public on www.omg.org/spec/cmmn. 

Significant Milestone: CISQ Reaches 500 Members

Since its inception in late 2009, the Consortium for IT Software Quality (CISQ) has had over 500 members join the organization. Reflecting the overarching desire for software quality standards, member organizations vary widely with members including: high-profile banking and financial services corporations; multinational IT and communication service organizations; major professional services firms; large universities; clothing retailers; insurance agencies; oilfield and energy service companies; and a TV and film production division. 

"CISQ has passed another milestone in gaining over 500 members. This validates the importance of the CISQ mission and the value of the standards we are creating for automating the measurement of software size and quality," said Dr. Bill Curtis, Director of CISQ. 

CISQ was created with the goal of creating a neutral, open forum in which customers and suppliers of IT application software can develop an industry-wide agenda of actions for improving IT application quality and reduce cost and risk. For more information, visit www.it-cisq.org.  

Learn More About: DDS

If you've been a member for a while, you've probably heard about the Data Distribution Service (DDS) standard. Though in the past, DDS has been framed primarily as a solution for aerospace/military problems, we've found that the spec can be applied to a wide vary of industries: from healthcare and finance to transportation and telecommunications. 

Visit our DDS Hot Topics page at www.omg.org/hot-topics/dds.htm to view case studies from our DDS-vendor members on DDS's various applications.  

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Note: All photos courtesy of Dr. Richard Soley and Dr. Jon Siegel unless indicated