DE + IA (INFO 243), Spring 2008

ASSIGNMENT 2: Patterns Scavenger Hunt and Study Guide

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

Course: DE + IA (INFO 243), Spring 2008
Date: 13 February 2008
Title: ASSIGNMENT 2: Patterns Scavenger Hunt and Study Guide

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 14 mostly short 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 14 numbered questions here. Make sure you answer all 14… i.e., your report should have 14 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 class on Monday March 3.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/documents/FEA_CRM_v23_Final_Oct_2007.pdf

Business Reference Model (BRM) Version 2.3, Federal Enterprise Architecture (October 2007), as described in pages 26-36 of FEA Consolidated Reference Model Document

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" from 13 February 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/cms/export/sites/default/RosettaNet/Downloads/RStandards/ClustersSegmentsPIPsOverview_10Dec2007.pdf

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 (think "conceptually" here and don't consider any implementation details)?

http://www.supply-chain.org/cs/root/home

Consider SCOR version 8 as described in overview presentation from the SCOR websitethat I've put at http://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/~glushko/IS243Readings/SCORV8.pdf to save you the trouble of registering to get it. SCOR is also described very well in the Kasi paper from February 20.

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. Pick any XML vocabulary listed in the Cover Pages that you might consider using in a project. Follow some links to news stories or "community sites" to assess the current state of the vocabulary. Write a one sentence description of the scope or coverage of the vocabulary. Write a few sentences about your assessment. How would you decide if models or schemas found somewhere on the Internet are worth using for your project?

http://www.oasis-open.org/home/index.php

9. 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?

10. 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/

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

12. 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.

13. 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?

14. Think of a Document Engineering project to analyze and potentially re-design some business process for the School of Information (or whatever your academic unit is) or for any other process on the UC Berkeley campus. Using either the MIT Process Library, RosettaNet, or UBL (just one of them so you're at a consistent level of detail), 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. (This doesn't have to be your course project... I just want to get you in a project frame of mind).