DE + IA (INFO 243), Spring 2007

ASSIGNMENT 2: Patterns Scavenger Hunt

Author(s):
Bob Glushko
glushko@ischool.berkeley.edu

Course: DE + IA (INFO 243), Spring 2007
Date: 15 February 2007
Title: ASSIGNMENT 2: Patterns Scavenger Hunt

The purpose of this assignment is to give you some familiarity with a few of the many pattern libraries and standards repositories that can help you in Document Engineering projects. There are seven different places you’ll visit. There are 16 questions that ask about specific resources or that ask you to compare and contrast them. You should do these in order as some of the questions refer back to previous sections. The order of the questions mostly follows the order of the lectures in the next two weeks when we will discuss each of these resources.

I expect that if you spend an hour or at most two on each resource you will achieve the level of understanding I’m aiming for with this assignment and be able to answer all of the questions. You aren’t going to become an expert - but you’ll have some sense of where to look for relevant patterns and specifications.

Pay special attention to the 16 numbered questions here. Make sure you answer all 16… i.e., your report should have 16 numbered answers in it! Some questions can be acceptably answered with just a sentence or two! Even those that seem open-ended should be answered in at most a couple of paragraphs. If you find yourself writing more than that for an answer, try harder to write less. This is a scavenger hunt, not a dissertation.

Please submit your work in electronic format at https://cardea.sims.berkeley.edu/upload/i243/ before 6pm PST on Thursday March 1 (this is the day after the last lecture in which we will be discussing some of the sources you'll visit in this assignment).

Business Reference Model (BRM) Version 2.1, Federal Enterprise Architecture, as described in pages 25-35 of FEA Consolidated Reference Model Document (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/documents/CRM.PDF)

1. Under what line of business in the Services to Citizens business area does the FEA describe the functions of the Patent Office? Where is weather forecasting? Tracking the spread of diseases?

(http://process.mit.edu/)

Find your way to the "Business Case Examples" and study a few companies you recognize. Use the "Compass Explorer" to understand the generalization hierarchy in the handbook. (It may help to revisit the paper "Do Some Business Models Perform Better Than Others" to understand the 4 business model archetypes in this generalization hierarchy).

2. What is the complete path through the hierarchy that describes Dell Computer’s business model?

3. Compare the Dell path/business model with the one that describes Adobe’s business model. Explain the similarities and differences between the two business models using the concepts embodied in the generalization hierarchy.

(http://www.rosettanet.org/pips and http://www.rosettanet.org/pipdirectory)

4. Examine at least one of the PIPs to understand what it contains (pick one of the most heavily used ones like 3A4, 3B2, or 3C3). How does the amount of detail and the type of content in the PIP description compare with that in the process descriptions in the MIT Process Handbook?

5. If you placed an order with Amazon last week and were wondering where your books are, what one or two PIPs best describe the processes you might undertake to find out?

Consider SCOR version 8 as described in overview presentation (http://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/~glushko/IS243Readings/SCORV8.pdf)

6. Compare the hierarchical organization in the SCOR model to the cluster / segment / PIP organization of the PIPs., the process hierarchies in the FEA BRM, and the MIT Process Handbook.

7. Compare the scope of coverage of "what businesses do" in SCOR to the coverage in RosettaNet, the FEA BRM, and the MIT Process Handbook.

(http://xml.coverpages.org/xmlApplications.html)

8. Find at least two XML vocabularies that on the basis of their names appear to be from the same or similar domains. Write a one sentence description of the scope or coverage of each vocabulary. How would you decide if the models or schemas were worth using for your project?

9. If you were helping a small local bank automate its interactions with customers for simple Internet banking transactions, which of the vocabularies listed in the Cover Pages might help you with models of financial information?

10. Are there any RosettaNet PIPs that seem relevant to this bank automation project?

(http://xml.coverpages.org/xmlApplications.html)

11. Take a look at the list of XML vocabularies being developed by OASIS technical committees. How does this body of effort compare in scope, quality, and process to the body of work listed under "XML Applications" in the Cover pages?

12. Find at least three OASIS three TCs that involve activities in the FEA Line of Business for "Homeland Security," including at least one that isn't listed under the "Law and Government" category.

(http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/cd-UBL-1.0/)

13. Section 5.1 of the UBL specification describes the documents and business processes that version 1 supports. Why were these documents chosen?

14. Create a table or other artifact that shows the relationships, where they exist, between the UBL documents and business processes in Section 5 and RosettaNet PIPs.

15. Describe the relationships or manner of use for the RosettaNet PIPs and UBL. Do you need to know about both of them? Would you ever use both of them in the same Document Engineering project?

16. Think of a Document Engineering project to analyze and potentially re-design some business process for the School of Information or for the UC Berkeley campus. Using either the MIT Process Library, RosettaNet, or UBL, identify at least 3 business process patterns or document models that might help you understand or communicate some aspects of the business process you've chosen. Explain why you’ve selected each of them.