An introduction to the task of building a Modeling framework and Architecture repository meta-model.

1. An Introduction to Building an
Architecture Repository Meta-model
and Modeling Framework
Warren Weinmeyer
May 5, 2013
Updated: Sep. 2014

2. Contents
• The need for Models to be in sync
• The Modeling Framework
• The Meta-model
• How these fit in the overall Architecture Framework
• Considerations when creating a Meta-model
2

3. Models Must Address Stakeholder Concerns
Stakeholders Concerns Models
Business
Rig Foreman Status
Sponsor
Report
Job
RigBooking JobBooking
Rig
Rig
Schedule
Cust-omer
Rig
Job/Well
Cust-omer
Well
License
Well License
Search
Equipment
Maintenance
SSL Terminator
Status
Reporting
Rig Bookings Job Tracking
Job
PetroApp
Oracle
11g
Well
License
Equip-ment
Booking
Job
sPrdVM1
168.192.1.13
Rig
ActiveJobRec
JobStatus
Field
wsBookRig wsTrackJob wsReportSt wsSrchLic
sPrdDBClust1
168.192.0.27
Head Office
DMZ
Corp
Zone
Red
Zone
RigBooking JobBooking JobStatus Well
License
Rig Admin
PM
Tech
Services
Developer
Who are
affected
Users
Business
Info at risk?
What
Locations
are
affected?
Is Confiden-tiality
&
Security
affected?
What
infrastructure
is required?
What
Interfaces
are
required?
What Data is
processed?
SolArc RA PC (5)
(Citrix client)
DMZ Red Zone
Load
Balancer
Switch
Citrix Access
Gateway Farm (exist)
Load
Balancer
Switch
Active Directory
Server (exists)
SRA PC (15)
(Citrix client)
SRA PC (15)
(Citrix client)
Internet
WAN
SRA LAN
PN
(TELUS)
30 Mbits /
Sec
PN
(TELUS)
45 Mbits /
Sec
Router
Router
Router
Dundan LAN
Durban LAN
Core LAN - Datacenter
Minimum IIS Server Spec:
§
2 load-balanced servers
§
Win Server 2003 64-bit
§
IIS 7.0
§
quad-core 2.3GHz cpu
§
2GB RAM
SAN Fiber Network
SAN Storage
SRA PC
(Citrix clients)
SRA Client PC Spec:
§
Windows XP Professional
§
Single P4 1.4GHz or Greater
§
512MB RAM or higher
Load Balancer
Minimum RAMQ Spec:
§
3 load-balanced servers
§
Win Server 2003 Ent Ed.
64-bit
§
quad-core 2.3GHz 64-bit
cpu
§
2GB RAM
SRA SQL
Server Cluster
SQL Server (SECONDARY)
Configured identically to PRIMARY
Legend:
New Existing
Firewall Router
Firewall Router
Data Switch
Minimum
Intermediary File
Server Spec:
§
Win 2003 Server,
Std Ed., 64-bit
§
1x quad-core
2.3GHz 64-bit cpu
§
4GB RAM
Minimum
Workstation Spec:
§
Win XP 32--bit
§
dual-core
2.3GHz 32-bit
cpu
§
3GB RAM
Minimum SQL Server
(primary) Spec:
§
Win 2003 Server, Std
Ed., 64-bit
§
SQL Server 2005, 64-
bit
§
2x quad-core 2.8GHz
64-bit cpu
§
32GB RAM
Router
SRA Database
§
200GB
Well-License
LicenseId
Lead
LeadId
Status
BookingId
Contact
ContactId
1
Operator
OperatorId
Booking
BookingId
StartDate
EndDate
RigId
EquipId
Location
LocId
LocDesc
Lat
Long
Job
JobId
RigId
Start
End
Well
StatusRpt
ReportId
Equipment
EquipId
Drilling-Rig
RigId
N
1 1
1
N
N
N N
N
N
N
N
N
0..N
N
0..N
N
N
N
N
1
1
1
0
1
1
1
3

4. Models Need to be Sync’d to Each Other
• Each model may be driven by stakeholder concerns, but if there
is no overall organization to the models, then:
• Some models may be too focused on a single stakeholder and so not enforce
a more re-useable separation of concerns
• There could be inconsistency in how models are visually presented
• There could be a lot of unnecessary work from elements being redundantly
modeled in multiple other models
• Some valuable concepts might “fall through the cracks” and be covered by
no model in particular
• The negative impacts grow more significant as the number of
models rises, and model “silos” develop
• These issues are addressed by the Modeling Framework
4

5. The Modeling Framework
• The Modeling Framework consists of
three components:
1. A Stakeholder Framework: a library
of Stakeholders and their Concerns
(i.e. topics of particular interest)
Business
Sponsor
PM
Tech
Services
Developer
Affected Users
Business Info
Locations
Confidentiality &
Security
Deployment
Interfaces
Apps/Functions
5
Note: The Stakeholder Framework is a
foundational framework that is
leveraged in multiple activities; for
example, for strategy creation,
constructing a roadmap framework,
identifying solution stakeholders, etc.

6. The Modeling Framework
• The Modeling Framework consists of
three components:
1. A Stakeholder Framework: a library
of Stakeholders and their Concerns
(i.e. topics of particular interest)
2. A Viewpoint Framework: a library of
Stakeholder-conscious Viewpoints
that:
• are structured to provide an overall
separation of concerns while ensuring
to cover all architectural perspectives
• are associated to each other via robust
conceptual linkages
6

7. The Modeling Framework
• The Modeling Framework consists of
three components:
1. A Stakeholder Framework: a library
of Stakeholders and their Concerns
(i.e. topics of particular interest)
2. A Viewpoint Framework: a library of
Stakeholder-conscious Viewpoints
that:
• are structured to provide an overall
separation of concerns while ensuring
to cover all architectural perspectives
• are associated to each other via robust
conceptual linkages
3. Modeling Standards that define:
• what entities can be included in each
model
• the visual representation of each model
• standardized tiers or levels of
representation for each model type
Top
Level
Level 1
Level 2
Logical
Landscape
Model
Entities
Business
Process
Model
Entities
System
System-System
Logical Interface
System Applications
App-App Logical
Interface
Application
Functions/Modules
Function-Function
Logical Interface
Value Chain
Event/Trigger
L0 Process
Control
Output
L1 Process
Services
7

8. The Modeling Framework
• The Modeling Framework
improves the practice of
modeling:
• It helps the modelers by
defining exactly what goes in
each model
• It provides a consistent
overall conceptual structure
that allows end users to
navigate from model to model
in a way that makes sense
• It divides up the solution
space in a way that
maximizes focus on the right
things in each model, and
minimizes needless overlap
• It packages areas of content
in a way that aligns with end
users’ perspectives
Driver
Best Practice
Proven Industry and
Enterprise proces es,
standards and methods
guides guides
Measure
is realized
by achieving
inspires
tactical y
confirms
achievement
Action/Work Package
Goal
influences influences
supports
Concern
is realized
by executing
Principle
Mis ion
influences
Vision
inspires
strategical y
Objective
is realized
by achieving
Things important to
the Stakeholder
Cur ent is ues and
chal enges
Aspirational long-term
future-state
Concrete cur ent-state
and near-future-
state target
High-level targets
to achieve Mis ion
Mid-level targets with
clear succes criteria
to achieve Goal
Defined targets with
concrete deliverables
and outcomes to achieve
Objective
KPIs, Succes
Indicators
guides
Guiding
fundamental values
for decision-making
confirms
achievement
confirms
achievement
confirms
achievement
influences
Strategy
authorizes
and constrains
Mandate
Confer ed authority and
responsibility within a
specific domain
TIP: Not everything you might want to create a
visualization for necessarily should be a formal Model.
8

9. From Modeling to Analytics
• Stakeholder-aligned, well-organized and consistent models are necessary to codify
• Architecture analytics are derived
just like any other type: from
queries on a database.
• A repository tool provides the
database that contains architecture
content, as well as built-in support
for creating analytics and reports
on the content
• The database needs a schema,
which defines semantic rules that
govern the entities in the database
• Just like any database schema, to
avoid Garbage-In-Garbage-Out,
the semantic rules themselves
must be conceptually rigorous,
while also being flexible to support
new analytic scenarios
• These semantic rules are defined
by the Repository meta-model
knowledge about the enterprise.
• However, a major value proposition for modeling the enterprise is the ability to generate
new insights through analytics.
9

10. From Modeling to Analytics
•An important source for
populating the repository
database is the library of
architecture models.
• The models will be well-formed
and consistent
because they comply to the
Modeling Framework
• To successfully import to the
repository database, the
elements within a model
must comply to the database
schema (the Meta-model)
Driver
Best Practice
Proven Industry and
Enterprise proces es,
standards and methods
guides guides
Measure
is realized
by achieving
inspires
tactical y
confirms
achievement
Action/Work Package
Goal
influences influences
supports
Concern
is realized
by executing
Principle
Mis ion
influences
Vision
inspires
strategical y
Objective
is realized
by achieving
Things important to
the Stakeholder
Cur ent is ues and
chal enges
Aspirational long-term
future-state
Concrete cur ent-state
and near-future-
state target
High-level targets
to achieve Mis ion
Mid-level targets with
clear succes criteria
to achieve Goal
Defined targets with
concrete deliverables
and outcomes to achieve
Objective
KPIs, Succes
Indicators
guides
Guiding
fundamental values
for decision-making
confirms
achievement
confirms
achievement
confirms
achievement
influences
Strategy
authorizes
and constrains
Mandate
Confer ed authority and
responsibility within a
specific domain
10

11. The Modeling Framework & Meta-Model in the Big Picture
• The Modeling Framework consists of
the Architecture Modeling Standards
and the Viewpoint Framework, and
leverages the Stakeholder Framework
• Modeling Standards govern the look
and feel of all architectural models
• The content of the architectural models
(the elements and their relationships)
are governed by the meta-model
The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF)
Stakeholder Framework
Strategic Alignment
Framework
Roadmap Framework
Repository
Roadmap
Attributes
Architecture Principles
Stakeholder
Concerns
Enterprise Capability Model
Models
(Capabilities,
Strategy Maps,
Processes,
Landscapes,
Deployments)
Stakeholder
Concerns
Strategic
Alignment
Criteria
RRoaodamdmapap Roadmap
Solution Architecture
Description Solution Guidance
Viewpoint Framework
Standardized
Viewpoints
Architecture Modeling
Standards
Modeling
Guidance
Stakeholder
Concerns
Inter-dependencies
Enterprise Landscapes
(created directly in Repository)
Roadmaps
(created directly in Repository)
Capability
Models
Capabilities
APM Framework
Strategy
Modeling
Guidance
M
e
t
a
-
m
o
d
e
l
Bulk Data
(from CMDB)
Landscape
Models
APM Models
Modeling
Guidance
Stakeholder
Meta-model Concerns
11

12. Considerations When creating a Meta-model
• Think about what are the important concepts to be able to
model or to generate analytics about?
• Is based on your Stakeholders and their Concerns
• Avoid going maverick: what do respected authorities have to
say regarding the concepts you want to model? For example:
• Organizations: TOGAF, ITIL, ISO, Archimate
• Industry segments: BPM, B Arch, Strategic Planning
• Well-known “voices”: Tom Graves, Avancier
• No Surprise: they don’t agree on many things!
• Maintain Architectural “rigour” (i.e., conceptual clarity)
• You will likely merge concepts from more than 1
framework: you must align and rationalize concepts (for
example, “Service” in ITIL vs TOGAF)
• Good analytics is impossible without architectural rigour
• Ultimately, do what addresses your organization’s needs
12

13. Constructing the Meta-model – Step 1
13
1. What are the important
concepts to be able to
model or to generate
analytics about?
• Based on your Stakeholders
(roles, not people) and their
Concerns (i.e. topics of particular
interest)
• The right way to enumerate
Concerns is through interviews: a
lot of work, but is heavily reusable
because Concerns tend to be
pretty persistent
• When interviewing isn’t possible,
you can identify standard types of
Concerns (for example, a PM is
always interested in time, risk and
cost)
What
Capability is
affected?
What Bus.
Processes
are affected?
What are
the required
Service levels?
What
Applications
are involved?
What
Information
Is Processed?
How is the
Org Structure
affected?
Is this
Strategically
Aligned?
Capabilities
What
Systems are
involved?
Strategy
Business
Processes
Services
Systems
Info
Entities
Org
Structure
Applications
Stakeholders Concerns Concepts
(entities)

14. Constructing the Meta-model – Step 2
Organiza-tional
Structure
14
2. What do various
“authorities” say about
these concepts?
• The foundation is built on an
architecture framework,
such as TOGAF
• Other frameworks may also
be relevant, like ITIL
– Or, you may need to beef up the
meta-model somewhere (for
example, with BMM or EBMM)
• Select ideas that align to
addressing your
requirements
• Will have to make decisions
when concepts don’t align
– Which concepts are crucial to a
given framework (eg. “Service”
in ITIL)
Strategic
Alignment
Business
Processes
Capabilities
Services
Information
Relationships
TOGAF
Business
Motivation
Model
ITIL
Applications Systems
Archimate

15. Constructing the Meta-model – Step 3
15
3. Define the Entities for
each concept and the
Associations between
them
• Leverage the short-listed
reference frameworks
• May need to customize at
the boundaries where the
frameworks get merged
• Minimal best practices exist
– is a type of data modeling
– a “complete” meta-model will
have between 30-50 entities
– a “balanced” meta-model will
have between 40-60
associations (approx. 1.5/entity)
• Getting the meta-model
wrong will undermine your
Analytics and lead to bad
guidance
Business Function
Functional purpose of a
Business Unit
Ente r p rise
1..*
1
Organization Unit
1
Ac t o r
0..*
0..*
Role
1
1
1..*
Location
1 1..*
1..*
contained
in
contained
in
contained
in
1..*
1..*
1..*