Abbreviated terms GIGAS Methodology for comparative analysis of information and data management systems
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5 OASIS
Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards OGC
Open Geospatial Consortium RASDS
Reference Architecture for Space Data Systems RM-OA
Reference Model ORCHESTRA Architecture RM-ODP Reference Model Open Distributed Processing
RST WG Refine Scope Target Working Group
SANY Sensor ANYwhere
SIF Standards Interoperability Forum
TBC, To Be Completed
TBD, To Be Defined
TBV To Be Verified
TDWG Taxonomic Database Working Group
UML Unified Modeling Language
W3C World Wide Web Consortium
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6 Methodology objectives
The proposed methodology has been developed taking into account a certain number of high level objectives all aiming at ensuring that convergence efforts are directed towards
consistent objectives.
The proposed methodology shall 1. empower each community with a neutral tool for comparison and convergence
2. require limited resources for its use and exploitation 3. allow a critical analysis to be performed by the initiative owners both at
management and technical level so that decision makers can be involved in the process
4. be scalable as what concerns the number of systems and initiatives addressed 5. allow to analyse and compare the objectives and business models of systems and
initiatives, 6. allow to analyse high level requirements, scenarios and use cases,
7. provide an identification of interoperability gaps, areas of possible convergence 8. be tuned towards high level analysis and identification of areas of convergence -
the design of the architectures of the contributing initiatives is outside the scope of this methodology
9. be based on the re-use of well known and proven methodologies As a consequence of the above high level objectives and on the basis of experience the
methodology has been based on the re-use for analysis and comparison purposes i.e. not for system design of the well known Reference Model for Open Distributed Processing
RM-ODP.
As an example, the applicability of the proposed methodology within the GEOSS context is twofold;
within the GEO Architecture Data Committee ADC it may be exploited to perform a characterization and high level analysis of the architectures of the
initiatives and systems contributing to GEOSS thus allowing a more effective discussion on convergence issues and remedies to identified gaps
within the Standards Interoperability Forum SIF the methodology can be exploited to perform a more in depth analysis of interoperability gaps and issues,
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7 possible areas of convergence and opportunities for harmonisation either among
the standards or the communities adopting them.
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7 Description of Convergence Process
The convergence process addressed by this methodology consists of the following steps: Identification of convergence objectives
Technology Watch Comparative Analysis
Convergence Management
Figure 1 Process Overview
The identification of convergence objectives is mainly a collection of the high level requirements aiming to identify the interoperability opportunities among the systems
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9 under analysis. The goal is to refine the scope and targets of the activity. The activity
involves the so-called stakeholders and user communities e.g. users or customers or designers or owners etc. of the systems under analysis, providing their inputs based on
their needs.
The Technology Watch consists of a parallel monitoring of the target systems in terms of requirements, standards, services, architecture, models, processes and the consensus
mechanisms with the same elements of the other systems under analysis.
The Technology Watch will be based on a study using the RM-ODP methodology and the related five viewpoints.
Technology watch is followed by a Comparative Analysis on solutions, requirements, architecture, models, processes and consensus mechanisms of the analysed systems.
The result of the Comparative Analysis will include: A set of conclusions summarising the result of the study including the
identification of technological gaps among the target systems to be explored; A list of recommendationsissues for the target systems to be expanded and
processed in depth in a possible following Convergence Management phase; An analysis on the schedules of the target systems with Identification of key
milestones or intervention points, in order to match the necessary deadlines, to provide timely inputs and to receive timely outputs.
Technology Watch and Comparative Analysis result are presented into a technical note.
The Convergence Management is the phase of outreach and possibly shaping. The results of the analysis mainly in terms of recommendations and issues are made public
and the target systems and stakeholders are addressed. This phase is out of the scope of this methodology.
The above process may be repeated in several iterations.
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8 Methodology