Key takeaways
- Interoperability = the ability to share information and services; the level of sharing is an architecture requirement.
- Business categories: operational, information, technical.
- Integration forms: presentation, information, application, technical.
- From A to F: reveal, describe in business terms, detail the content, specify application sharing, specify mechanisms, select solutions, implement logically.
- A single definition shared with the extended enterprise ensures consistent application.
Why define the level of sharing
Specifying to what extent information and services will, or will not, be shared is a valuable architecture requirement, especially in a complex organization or an enterprise extended to partners. Many definitions are possible: what matters is to adopt one and apply it consistently, ideally the same one for the enterprise and its partners.
Two classifications not to confuse
The first, business-oriented classification has three categories. The second, inspired by Enterprise Application Integration, takes an IT viewpoint in four forms. In the exam, check whether the question talks about processes, information, or technical resources, or rather about the interface, shared data, shared functions, or common infrastructure.
- Operational (business): how parts of the enterprise work together and share their processes
- Information: how information is shared
- Technical: how technical resources are shared or at least connected
- Presentation integration: a common portal offers one experience across several systems
- Information integration: enterprise data shared seamlessly, based on a common ontology
- Application integration: shared functions, for example a single change-of-address service
- Technical integration: common methods and services for communication, storage, and data access
A requirement refined phase by phase
Interoperability is not handled at a single moment: each phase refines one aspect of it. Remember the verb attached to each phase.
- Phase A: the nature and security of exchanges emerge in the business scenarios
- Phase B: exchanges are described in business terms
- Phase C (data): their content is detailed with the enterprise data or exchange model
- Phase C (applications): how applications share information and services is specified
- Phase D: the technical mechanisms enabling exchanges are specified
- Phase E: actual solutions are selected, for example COTS or SaaS
- Phase F: interoperability is implemented logically
Degrees of interoperability (ADM Techniques)
FURTHER STUDY · APPLICATION DETAILS
The ADM Techniques also offer a scale to express the intended level of sharing between systems. This detail goes beyond the Foundation syllabus, but it helps write precise interoperability requirements.
- Degree 1: unstructured data exchange, human-readable (free text, e-mail)
- Degree 2: structured data exchange, designed for automated processing
- Degree 3: seamless sharing of data, automated through a common exchange model
- Degree 4: seamless sharing of information, with a shared interpretation of its meaning
TERMS TO KNOW
The terms, in context.
- Interoperability
- The ability to share information and services between parts of the enterprise or with partners.
- Operational interoperability
- Business category defining how parts of the enterprise work together and share their processes.
- Information integration
- Form of interoperability where enterprise data is shared between applications on a common basis.
- Degree of interoperability
- A level on a 1-to-4 scale expressing how structured and automated sharing between systems is.