Interoperability experiences related to requirements 

management 

Dr. Jose María Alvarez-Rodríguez
Carlos III University of Madrid
josemaria.alvarez@uc3m.es

Table of contents

  • Interoperability
  • Semantic Web & Linked Data
  • Requirements Management (RM)
  • Crystal Project
    • OSLC
    • Example 
  • Conclusions and Future Work

INTEROPERABILITY

British to Australian problem...



https://www.mita.gov.mt/

Semantic web in a nutshell

  • Common and shared data model
    • Graph (subject, object, predicate)
    • RDF with different serialization formats
    • Implicit Multilinguism suport
  • Knowledge Representation
    • Ontologies
    • OWL (Ontology Web Language)
    • Logic formalism: DL, F-Logic, etc.
    • Reasoning

SEMANTIC WEB IN A NUTSHELL (II)

  • Knowledge management
    • Expert systems
  • Standards
    • Query Languages
    • Vocabularies
    • Datasets
    • ...

An example...


...and the RDF Triples


jose-foaf: http://www.josemalvarez.es/foaf.rdf#.
diego:foaf: http://berrueta.net/foaf.rdf#.

jose-foaf:me foaf:name “Jose”.

jose-foaf:me foaf:family_name “Alvarez”.

jose-foaf:me foaf:knows diego-foaf:me.

diego-foaf:me foaf:name “Diego”.

An introductory example...


Let's suppose (public procurement):

  • We are a public body
  • We want to buy "beds" for a new hospital
  • The call is open to any European entity
  • Data
    • Type of object (Common Procurement Vocabulary)
    • Location (Greece)
    • Multilingual environment 
    • Value / Quantity / currency
    • ....

EUROPEAN E-PROCUREMENT CONTEXT...

  • Data sources
    • Official bulletins, web pages, newspaper, etc.
  • Formats
    • HTML, PDF, XML, PNG, etc.
  • Languages
    • 23 official languages in Europe
  • Models, services and APIs
    • XML-Schema, SQL, REST, WSDL/SOAP, etc.


AN INTEROPERABILITY PROBLEM!

...as RDF triples...



Is this example 

linked data?

LINKED DATA PRINCIPLES


  1. Use URIs to name things
  2. When someone looks up a URI, provide useful information, using the standards (RDF*, SPARQL).
  3. Use HTTP URIs.
  4. Include links to other URIs.


applying the linked data principles...

extending linked data...

ADVANTAGES

  • Web-based standards
    • HTTP URIs
  • Common and shared data model RDF graph
    • Syntaxis: RDF/XML, JSON, Turtle, etc.
  • SPARQL  as query language
  • Implicit multilingualism support
  • Reasoning enabled
  •  Meta-described properties
    • E.g. value and currency

LINKED OPEN DATA CLOUD

WEB OF DATA 

&

databases similarities




REQUIREMENTS ENGINEERING

  • Activities
    • Elicitation
    • Analysis and negotiation
    • Documentation
    • Quality assessment 
    • ...
  • A key-process in critical systems
    • Validation
    • Verification

SAFETY!

existing methodologies

  • Requirements-driven engineering ( What? )
    • Focus on  requirements
    • E.g. RDE
  • Model-based systems engineering ( How? )
    • Focus on models
    • E.g. MDA, MDE, MDD, etc.
  • Model-driven requirements engineering ( What + How? )
    • Conjunction of models and requirements
    • E.g. MDRE

...but...

EVOLUTIONARY requirements

INCOSE

Use of requirements as a basic unit of specification!

SOME OPEN ISSUES...

  • Tangled environment of tools/techniques/methods
    • Data sources
      • IBM Doors, Reqtify, Rational Rose, RAT, KM etc.
    • Formats
      • XMI, ReqIF, etc.
    • Languages
      • ...
    • Models, services and APIs
      • XML-Schema, SQL, REST, WSDL/SOAP, etc.
  • Link of requirements to models to...
    • share a common vocabulary
    • model the Product Breakdown Structure (PBS)
    • ensure quality: understandability, traceability, etc.


IS 

LINKED DATA

A POTENTIAL SOLUTION?

interoperability

British to Australian solved!


https://www.mita.gov.mt/

open services for lifecycle collaboration (oslc)


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7e/OSLC_diagram.png

SPECIFICATIONS 

OSLC PRINCIPLES

  • Build on the WWW
    • HTTP REST
    • CRUD operations
    • Auth methods
  • Keep things simple
    • Consensus
  • Accommodate different schemas
  • Accommodate different representations
    • RDF/XML, JSON, ATOM, etc.
  • Align with the W3C Linked Data initiative
    • Follow the Linked Data principles

OSLC-CORE


SERVICE PROVIDER


OSLC concepts

  • Domain
  • Service
  • Service Provider
  • Resource
  • Resource Shape
  • Creation Factory
  • Query Capability
  • Response Info Resource
  • ...

EACH SPECIFICATION...


  • Defined Resources



  • Defined Properties

OSLC REQUIREMENTS MANAGEMENT

  • Management of requirements through OSLC
  • Defined resources
    • Requirements Resource
    • Requirement Collection Resource
    • Service Provider
    • Service Consumer

oslc REquirements management


Contd.

oscl preliminary evaluation

OSCL PRELIMINARY EVALUATION

  • Good approach but...
  • It requires more information on how to...

Publish and Consume 


Linked data

THE CRYSTAL PROJECT



 
http://www.crystal-artemis.eu/

IOS (OSLC) IN CRYSTAL

3 main challenges

On-going work

  1. Controlled vocabulary and ontology
  2. Product Breakdown Structure
  3. Services to manage domain knowledge

skos IN A NUTSHELL

  • SIMPLE
  • KNOWLEDGE
  • ORGANIZATION
  • SYSTEM

  • USE OF SKOS


  • Controlled vocabulary
  • Taxonomies
  • Thesauri
  • Folksonomies,  etc.

objectives

  • Define concepts and concept schemes

operations

Store
Retrieve
Annotate
Link and merge

Concepts


skos definitions

  • Classes and categories
    • skos:Concept and skos:ConceptScheme
  • Properties
    • Lexical labels
    • Notation
    • Documentation
    • Mapping
    • Semantic

example


1-Vocabulary 

“Whenever the pedal of the brake is pressed, the car will decelerate immediately”

A "car" as a system...


taxonomy


Steps 

(simplified version of a lifecycle for linked data)
  1. Model Concepts in SKOS
  2. URI Design
  3. Create concepts
  4. Add authoring properties
  5. Add labeling properties
  6. Add notation properties
  7. Add  documentation properties
  8. Add semantic properties
  9. Add mapping properties
  10. Add concepts to a scheme
  11. Describe the concept scheme
See Linked Data Lifecyles http://www.w3.org/2011/gld/wiki/GLD_Life_cycle

Model concepts & select URIs


http://patterns.dataincubator.org/book/identifier-patterns.html

http://data.gov.uk/resources/uris


Create concepts


Labeling properties


Documentation properties

semantic properties

Hierarchy


Semantic properties (contd.)


DEFINING MY OWN SEMANTIC PROPERTIES


  • Select type of property
    • Transitive
    • Symmetric
    • ...

Extending broader/narrower properties



http:// www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/extensions/spec/2004-10-18.html#broaderPartitive

using part-of


Mapping properties


add concepts to a concept scheme


A skos-based 'car'...


a skos-based braking system...


a skos concept scheme...


SKOS BENEFITS

  • A concept-oriented model
  • RDF-based 
    • a common and shared data model
  • Crucial contribution to interoperability
  • A way of porting KOS to RDF
    • Align to existing standards (ISO 25964)
  • Lightweight reasoning
  • Simple but powerful
  • Extensible
  • Widely-used in existing semantic web vocabularies
    • Boosting the Linked Data initiative


on-going work

  • OSLC Requirements Management
    • A first prototype to tackle the aforementioned challenges
      • A SKOS-based approach
      • Use of the Eclipse Lyo OSLC API
  • OSLC Quality Management
    • First approach on top of the RDF-Data Cube vocabulary
      • To model (reuse existing quality metrics)  and
      • ... compute
      • ... quantitative indexes
  • Services for knowledge management

OSLC-RM by UC3M


CONCLUSIONS

  • Requirements Management is a key-process for the development of critical systems
    • Requirement as a basic unit of specification
    • Link requirements to models
    • Verification and Validation
    • Model-driven Requirements Engineering (MDRE)
  • Quality Management
    • Support ISO standards (250XX)
  • OSLC to ensure compatibility among tools
    • Linked Data in a controlled environment...

OSLC-based MDRE

WHAT'S NEXT...

  • Research
    • Identify more services to be offered via OSLC
    • Apply the Linked Data principles to Requirements and Quality Management specs.
  • Development
    • Full prototype
  • Innovation
    • Support to The Reuse Company Inc. to offer through OSLC


...for your attention!

Q & A

CREDITS

  • Speaker: Dr. Jose María Alvarez-Rodríguez
  • Team:
    • KR group
      • Prof. Dr. Juan Llorens
      • Prof. Dr. Juan Miguel Gómez, 
      • Dr. Anabel Fraga
      • Dr. Valentín Moreno
      • Ms. Manuela Alejandres
      • Mr. Jose Fuentes (The ReuseCompany Inc.)

RESOURCES

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