OMG Members Form Architecture Ecosystem Special Interest Group

Needham, MA, USA - February 23, 2010 - OMG™ members have formed the Architecture Ecosystem Special Interest Group (AE SIG) to provide for improved definition and integration of models and modeling languages within an ecosystem where modeling tools and languages can be used together more effectively. While direct participation in the AE SIG is limited to OMG members, non-members are invited to monitor the group's activities through an open email list. For more information, visit the Architecture Ecosystem Wiki: http://www.omgwiki.org/architecture-ecosystem.

Architects, modelers and ontologists are faced with multiple tools and standards that are not working together - their viewpoints and data are not easily shared. The intent of the Architecture Ecosystem SIG (AE SIG) will be to provide users with more cohesive modeling environments where knowledge about the enterprise and enterprise systems is more integrated while being more focused on the needs of various stakeholders. This includes information that is found in business models, processes models, vocabularies, data schema, object models, technology models, spreadsheets, ad-hoc diagrams and more. The ecosystem is expected to provide the standards that will allow all of this knowledge to be used together more effectively, without redundancy. These standards will allow tools and tool suites to be more interoperable, which will facilitate this crucial enterprise data to be more useful and accessible across a variety of tools and technologies.

The AE SIG will work with other OMG groups, external entities and related industry groups to facilitate the creation of a common architectural ecosystem. This ecosystem will support the creation, analysis, integration and exchange of information between modeling languages across different domains, viewpoints and from differing authorities.

"The Architecture Ecosystem effort provides the opportunity to take modeling, architecture and enterprise knowledge management to the next level, where users are provided a holistic and collaborative view of their business, missions and systems. OMG has helped take modeling from 'pictures' to being sharable data based on standards. This next step will provide a web-based federated knowledge base that describes how we work, how we work together and the information we use and share," said Cory Casanave, president and CEO, Model Driven Solutions and co-chair, AE SIG. "By breaking down the silos between modeling languages, and the corresponding tools, we will be better able to manage the transformations that will make government and commercial enterprises more open, efficient and collaborative. We look forward to working with users and industry experts to make this ecosystem a reality."

"Different approaches to capturing, communicating, extending, integrating and leveraging information lead to overlaps and gaps in the standards and fragmentation in the marketplace. This results in poor tool interoperability with increased vendor development and maintenance costs. Users struggle to use modeling languages to manage complexity and deliver value. This may contribute to poor standards adoption and low revenue growth for supporting tool vendors, which tends to produce a downward spiral where the whole becomes less than the sum of the parts," said Jim Amsden, Senior Technical Staff Member, Rational Enterprise Architecture Management, IBM. "OMG has developed a foundation for defining a family of modeling languages. However, new requirements for information sharing and integration have emerged and we are now experiencing another wave of standards fragmentation. The goals of the Architecture SIG are to address these influencers to determine how best to address these influencers in order to drive significant new value from modeling."

OMG is inviting any groups or organizations that may have interest or expertise in this area to participate. Full participation is limited to OMG members but the community at large may monitor the group and have access to the email list. For information on membership in OMG, contact Ken Berk, vice president, business development at +1-781-444 0404 or ken.berk@omg.org.

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About OMG
OMG™ is an international, open membership, not-for-profit computer industry standards consortium. OMG Task Forces develop enterprise integration standards for a wide range of technologies and an even wider range of industries. OMG's modeling standards, including the Unified Modeling Language™ (UML®) and Model Driven Architecture® (MDA®), enable powerful visual design, execution and maintenance of software and other processes, including IT and Systems Modeling, and Business Process. OMG's middleware standards and profiles are based on the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA®) and support a wide variety of industries. For more information, visit www.omg.org. 

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Edited by Stephanie