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ACART & Be Informed for EM&I

Dr. Brand NiemannDirector and Senior Enterprise Architect – Data Scientist

Semantic Communityhttp://semanticommunity.info/

AOL Government Bloggerhttp://gov.aol.com/bloggers/brand-niemann/

May 25, 2012

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Semantic Community

• Our Mantra is: Data Science Precedes the Use of SOA, Cloud, and Semantic Technologies! We use data science to help marketing and business development efforts.

• Our Mission is like Googles: Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

• Our Method is like Be Informed 4: Architectural Diagrams and Questions and Answers are not enough, you need Dynamic Case Management!

• Our Sound Byte: It is not just where you put your data (cloud), but how you put it there!

• Our Work: Semantically enhancing your data and writing data science stories about it.

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Overview

• What is ACART?• What is the BTA Training Initiative?• What Has BTA Ask Semantic Community to

Provide?• What is Be Informed?• How Does this Help EM&I?• What’s Next?

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What is ACART?• ACART is a net-centric, management decision support tool that EM&I developed which helps

key stakeholders to scope, assess and assert architecture enterprise requirements compliance as well as architectures, laws, regulations, policies, guidelines and checklists. Although ACART is used to streamline compliance, it is a highly-customizable platform that is also used for comparing systems and requirements and enabling more effective IT investment decisions.

• Bottomline: ACART assists agencies in determining the "best IT bang for the buck."• ACART is a customizable tool that is already enabling hundreds of Federal Executives and

Program Compliance Managers to:– Sort and map a vast number of multi-level system requirements.– Track which requirements apply to your scope of analysis.– Pinpoint & document corrective compliance actions.– Perform side-by-side system comparisons & develop AoA.– Assert compliance to Architectures, Requirements, & LRPs.– Produce targeted reporting for Pre-Certification and IRB.– Support & defend asset investment decisions you make.

• Note: ACART (Architecture Compliance and Requirements Traceability), AoA (Analysis of Alternatives), LRPs (Laws, Regulations, and Policies), and IRB (Investment Review Board)

Source: http://www.em-i.com/acart/index.html

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ACART Overview• The ACART process is designed to first

take the user through the architecture or requirements (which you are complying to) in a general to specific path. It works much like a sieve.

• Ultimately, the user ends up with a narrowed down, clearly-defined set of items that can be used to generate assertions measuring the extent of their program or system compliance to those original requirements.

• The last selections will, in turn, yield a list of business rules, data objects, data elements, data entities, system functions and technical standards associated with the filtered list of activities/processes.

Source: http://www.acartcompliance.com/acartprocess/slide8.html

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ACART Overview

• EM&I Value - Pre-ACART Implementation– EM&I’s senior-level consultants prepare your organization to

better assess, understand, analyze and document your enterprise architecture, systems / business environments, and acquisition process.• Source: http://www.acartcompliance.com/acartprocess/slide12.html

• EM&I Value - Post-ACART Implementation– With this management visibility into operations, your

organization is positioned to leverage additional opportunities through EM&I.• Source: http://www.acartcompliance.com/acartprocess/slide13.html

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What is the BTA Training Initiative?

• The BTA training initiative serves to advance understanding of BTA’s programs through one-stop access to high quality e-learning products, tools, and resources.

• BTA’s e-learning initiative currently offers the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA); Semantic Web; and Business Transformation Framework.

• For more information, click here.Source: http://www.bta.mil/index.html

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What Did BTA Ask Semantic Community to Provide?

• Build DoD in the Cloud:– Third SOA and Semantic Interoperability Conference, July 13-14, 2011.

• See: http://semanticommunity.info/Build_DoD_in_the_Cloud

• SOA, Semantic Technology, and Cloud Training Recommendations:– Post Third Conference Request by Dennis Wisnosky

• See: http://semanticommunity.info/@api/deki/files/13250/BrandNiemann07272011.pptx

• Build DoD Enterprise Information Web:– August 2011 – present.

• See: http://semanticommunity.info/A_DoD_DCMO_Enterprise_Information_Web

• Note: Also see Chronology:– July 2011 – April 2012:

• See: http://semanticommunity.info/A_DoD_DCMO_Enterprise_Information_Web#Chronology

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What is Be Informed?

• Be Informed 4 is a advanced software platform for both business and technology people to build dynamic case management applications.

• Be Informed 4 enables organizations to realize knowledge intensive administrative processes where complex decisions have to be made on a regular basis.

• The Model = Design + Application + Documentation and all of the them are Semantic Services.

• Be Informed 4 is a major achievement in agile development for business and technology people that does not require conventional software development.

Source: http://semanticommunity.info/AOL_Government/Be_Informed_4_-_They_really_got_it

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What is Be Informed?

PC Desktop Studio http://localhost:8080/webui/webapp/

http://www.beinformed.com/ http://www.beinformed.com/BeInformed/website/en/EN/Demo

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How Does this Help EM&I?• EM&I could provide BTA with one-stop access to high quality e-

learning products, tools, and resources.– See: http://www.em-i.com/

• EM&I Value - Pre-ACART Implementation – with Semantic Enhancement of DoD Enterprise Architecture, Information Sharing, and Standards.– See:

http://semanticommunity.info/@api/deki/files/17845/BrandNiemann04202012.pptx

• EM&I Value - Post-ACART Implementation – with Be Informed Modeling and Portal.– See:

http://semanticommunity.info/@api/deki/files/17280/Brand_Niemann02132012.pptx

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What’s Next?

• Two Stage Pilot:– Data Science - Semantic Enhancement on an

Active Project (non-classified)– Be Informed - Modeling and Portal on an Active

Project (non-classified)• Options:– BTA Selects on Funded Project– We Propose on Our Own Resources

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Frank Buytendijk

• How can Zachman's framework not be an ontology ;-). I think the framework is largely misunderstood if you think of it as a methodology. In Be Informed terms, the Target Operating Model (TOM), built using Be Informed, actually is structured like an ontology too. What I like about the TOM is the strong focus on stakeholders. Zachman has something like it, but not as prominent…

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Mills Davis

• I love the fact that Zachman uses the term ontology.• What are some differences between Zachman and Be

Informed?– Zachman portrays the enterprise architecture ontology as a static

model that results from applying his meta-concepts. – Zachman architecture is a reference model. By itself it doesn't

execute.– Be Informed is complementary to Zachman, and can incorporate his

meta-modeling.– Be Informed models can be static, but normally the focus is on

models that are dynamic.– The biggest difference is executeability. Be Informed, architecture is

something that executes directly from the models.

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Brand Niemann• John Zachman’s presentation at the recent EA Conference is very relevant:

– See: http://www.digitalgovernment.com/media/Downloads/asset_upload_file949_4338.pdf

– His conclusion: “My perception is that it is going to take actual work, ENGINEERING work, to solve the problems. My plan would be to start building out an inventory of models, PRIMITIVE MODELS, iteratively and incrementally, engineering them for alignment, integration, flexibility, reduced time-to-market, etc., etc. What would be YOUR plan for solving the problems???

– The Framework for Enterprise Architecture (The Zachman Framework) presently appears to be a grossly misunderstood concept among the IT community. It is NOT a methodology. It is an ONTOLOGY.

– Until an ontology exists, nothing is repeatable, nothing is predictable.”• So he has ended up where Be Informed started – Be Informed creates an

ontology that is an executable application not just a method.• See my recent story:

– See: http://semanticommunity.info/AOL_Government/Embracing_Complexity_of_Business_Processes_with_Simpler_Implementations

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Brand Niemann

• The value proposition for Be Informed versus ACART is that for the NGA demonstration I was able to map NGA Director Long’s requirements directly into the Be Informed Dynamic Case Management MetaModel and start building an application for the web!