The Internet would enable new ways for service innovation and trading, as well as for analysing the resulting value networks, with an unprecedented level of scale and dynamics. Yet most related eco- nomic activities remain of a largely brittle and manual nature. Service- oriented business implementations focus on operational aspects at the cost of value creation aspects such as quality and regulatory compliance. Indeed they enforce how to carry out a certain business in a prefixed non-adaptive manner rather than capturing the semantics of a business domain in a way that would enable service systems to adapt their role in changing value propositions. In this paper we set requirements for SDL- compliant business service semantics, and propose a method for their ontological representation and governance. We demonstrate an imple- mentation of our approach in the context of service-oriented Information Governance.

1. Business Service Semantics
Ontological Representation & Governance of Business Semantics in
Compliant Service Networks
Pieter De Leenheer, Jorge Cardoso, Carlos Pedrinaci
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2. Overview
• Analyse problems with conceptual (software / business) service modelling
• Set ontological and governance requirements for Business Service Semantics
• Proposal for an SDL-compliant upper model
• Application of the ontology in Flanders Research Information Space
• Implementation in Collibra Data Governance Center product
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3. The Problem of Service-oriented Architecture (SOA)
• believed to be core enabling technology, however no large-scale adoption for our service economy
• a componential approach inspired by product innovation: “bill of materials” and “urban architecture”
➡ clever idea but with lack of appreciation of inherent traits of service co-production: variety, intangibility, and
coopetition
• biased by the enterprise-centric vision, hence electronic business implementations:
• rely on hierarchy of functional components, i.e.: Web services for exchange of data and functionality
• enforce how to execute a certain business operation in a fixed pre-defined manner: time dependency and
control flow
➡ good for automating EXECUTION but not for TRADING or INNOVATION
➡ ignores aspects related to the exchange of value: e.g., strategy, proposition, roles, resourcing, pricing, quality
and (regulatory) compliance
• complement SOA with value abstraction level: declare knowledge about what the business domain constitutes in
terms of assets and relationships that allows to reactively adapt its role in changing value propositions.
• Service-dominant marketing logic: ontological analysis of “service” as a perdurant (“action”), rather than an endurant
(“object”)....
Norman & Ramirez (1993): “the key strategic task is the reconfiguration of roles and relationships
among this constellation of actors in order to mobilise the creation of value in new forms and by
new players.”
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4. The Problem with Business Modelling / Service
Network Approaches
Razo-Zapata, I.; De Leenheer, P.; Gordijn, J.; Akkermans, H. (2012) Service
Network Approaches. In Barros, A.; Oberle, D. Handbook of Service Description:
USDL and its Methods, Springer, pp. 45-74
Wiki- (Becker,
decentralised relationship-driven organisation
nomics Value 2009)
• dotted circles: (Tapscott,
2008)
Networks
(Allee,
e3service
(de
2002) Kinderen,
Servigu-
• process-based ration
(Baida,
2009) SNN
(Bitsaki,
2008)
Network-centric:
2006)
• planning problem
e3value
Digital (Gordijn,
METEOR
Capital 2002) -S (2005)
• solid circles:
(Tapscott,
2000)
Service u- Ontomat
Architectu-
• value-based
Service (Agarwal,
res (Booth,
(Lee, 2004)
2004)
REA 2011)
(McCarthy, Dynami-
• design problem 1982) (Razo-
Zapata,
CoS (Da
Silva,
BUSITAL 2011)
2011)
➡ slow tendency towards
decentralised and automated (Gordijn et
hierarchical process-driven organisation
al., (Traverso
CPC
HICCS, , 2004)
approaches (Letia,
2008)
2011)
➡ contamination of process-thinking
Enterprise-centric:
in network-centric approaches (Kohl-
born,
(Razo-
Zapata et
al.,
2010) GVP BUSITAL,
➡ tacit business semantics (Zlatev,
2007)
2010)
➡ no governance O-WSP VBC
(Omela- (Nakamu
Value BMO
➡ Service Network Approaches Chain
(Porter,
(Oster-
walder,
yenko,
2006)
ra, 2006 )
lonely at the top? 1985) 2004)
ICT support: None Design Analysis Bundling Matching Composition Dynamic
Composition
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5. Service Value Networks Perspective
An Service Value Network is a complex system of peers that establish the necessary relationships
to collectively produce (hence co-produce) value (in terms of a real-world service) for their
environment (Razo-Zapata, De Leenheer, & Gordijn, 2011).
• service co- production, i.e. ”bundling”
• in function of well-articulated needs => a service is a function f : Needs -> SVNs
• reflects an acceptable trade-off between
• value proposition (to maximize short-term profit) and
• market accuracy (to minimize consumer sacrifice)
• evaluating other value aspects (quality and compliance) requires “business service domain” semantics that:
• provide intended - natural - interpretation of the “real world”: divergence/convergence
• makes common sense, hence is declarative and grounded in upper SDL ontology
• are agreed and shared by the right arrangement of roles and responsibilities (i.e., governance)
Business Semantics Management
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6. SDL-Compliant Upper-level Model
Resource
• inspired by Poels, FRISCO, Maglio
Operant Operand
controlled by /
Resource Resource governance
governance
controlling
execution
Service acted upon by / acting upon
Competency
System
Operand
Resource
part of / guarded by / guarding
having part "Operant In Action" Circumstance
Action
acting in / acted upon by
Organisation Individual Operant
Resource part of /
having part
Actor
role of / playing role of Elementary Composite
Action Action
integrating / integrated by
value creation
Service requiting
Service
System / requited by
providing / provided by
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7. Flanders Research Information Space
http://www.researchportal.be/
• Boost innovation through
• aggregating data and make it
publicly available
• 19683 projects
• 1976 organisations
• 13982 researchers
• ...
• multiple parties deliver
• Enterprise Info. Mgt.
• SOA (Attira)
• Business Semantics (EuroCRIS,
Collibra)
• Business Artefacts (IBM Research,
Collibra)
• CERIF standard
• Linked Data Approaches
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8. Characteristics of the FRIS Ecosystem
• Participatory
• Equally privileged
• Act autonomously
• Interdependence
• Distributed
• Long Life Cycles
• Governance Levels
• Variability
• Authentic Resources
project mgt.
funding programme mgt.
© courtesy of G. Van Grootel, EWI
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9. FRIS Ontology Instantiation
Service
System
Organisation
Semantic Speech
Community Individual:
Community
"FRIS" having part / part of "VUB" having part / part of "John"
"Individual in Service"
providing / provided by
controlling / controlling / acting in /
controlled by controlled by acted upon by
expressed by / expressing
Service:
Concept Vocabulary playing role of /
"Project" "Define Project
"Project" role of
Vocabulary"
Actor:
acted upon by / acting upon "Business
Steward"
Operand
Resource Circumstance:
"Define Proposal
providing / provided by guarded by / guarding Vocabulary Ended"
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10. Data Governance Center
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11. Further Reading
• SDL-compliant upper-level model highlighting extension points for
• value creation: Razo-Zapata, I.; De Leenheer, P.; Gordijn, J.; Akkermans, H. (2012) Fuzzy Verification of Service
Value Networks. In Proc. of the International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE
2012), Springer LNCS 7328, pp. 95-110
• execution: Limonad, L.; De Leenheer, P.; Linehan, M.; Hull, R.; Vaculín, R. (2012) Ontology of Dynamic Entities. In
Proc. of 31st International Conference on Conceptual Modeling (ER 2012), LNCS, Springer
• more on FRIS: Debruyne, C.; De Leenheer, P. (2012) Insights in Business Semantics Management: Case Studies
drawn from the Flemish Public Administration. In Aufaure, M.-A.; Zimanyí, E. (eds.) Handbook for the Second
European Business Intelligence Summer School (eBISS 2012), LNBIP, Springer
• can we automatically reconfigure Actor role played by Operant that acts in a Services in response to quality or
compliance issues ?
• De Leenheer, P. and Debruyne, C. (2009) Towards Social Performance Indicators for Community-based Ontology
Evolution. In Proc. of ISWC Workshop on Collaborative Construction, Management and Linking of Structured
Knowledge (CK2009)
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