OASIS Member Discuss

Members of OASIS, OMG, and The Open Group announce the publication of a new white paper, "Navigating the SOA Open Standards Landscape Around Architecture." The paper was produced to help the SOA community at large navigate the myriad of overlapping technical products produced by these organizations with specific emphasis on the 'A' in SOA; i.e., Architecture.

This joint white paper explains and positions standards for SOA reference models, ontologies, reference architectures, maturity models, modeling languages, and governance. It outlines where the works are similar, highlights the strengths of each body of work, and touches on how the work can be used together in complementary ways. It is also meant as a guide to users of these specifications for selecting the technical products most appropriate for their needs, consistent with where they are today and where they plan to head on their SOA journeys.

"We recognize the value of cooperative, inter-organizational SOA standards development," said Duane Nickull of Adobe, chair of the OASIS SOA Reference Model Technical Committee. "The SOA paradigm is huge, and there is much work to be done. Coordination between groups ensures that related SOA standards will work together without unnecessary overlap, contradiction or redundancy."

"This paper is an excellent start to reducing the confusion about SOA standards that there has been in the market place, by explaining the relative positions of the architecture-related SOA standards of OASIS, the OMG and The Open Group," said Dr. Chris Harding, Forum Director for SOA and Semantic Interoperability, The Open Group. It is the result of excellent and effective co-operation between the three bodies, which we hope and expect will continue."

"SOA is strategic for enabling the agile creation and integration of business applications at IBM." said Jim Amsden of IBM, co-chair of the OMG Analysis and Design Task Force and co-chair of the OMG SoaML Finalization Task Force and one of the authors of the OMG SoaML standard. "Standards provide the foundation for interoperability and integration needed to achieve success with SOA. The positioning of these standards helps minimize fragmentation and confusion in the SOA market. This paper also provides a context in which to collaboratively evolve the standards leading to better supporting products and best practices. We encourage the continuing collaboration between OMG, the Open Group and OASIS to help achieve the SOA value proposition."

The white paper, "Navigating the SOA Open Standards Landscape Around Architecture," is published on the web sites of all three organizations:

OASIS - http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/33412/W096_09-07.pdf
OMG - http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?ad/2009-06-03
The Open Group - http://www.opengroup.org/projects/soa/uploads/40/20044/W096.pdf

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Carol Geyer, Director of Communications
OASIS: Advancing open standards for the information society http://www.oasis-open.org
+1.978.667.5115 x209

I am bemused as to how "OASIS" has authored such a document without the involvement of Technical Committees that may have a stake in such a paper. I believe the SOA-RM TC approved this document, but I don't remember other OASIS Members or TCs having the chance to review and comment. 

Without diminishing the work of the SOA-RM TC, I would request that  a disclaimer is added to this document to reflect that this represents the views of one TC and not necessarily the view of all OASIS Members.

Regards,
  Martin.

OASIS SCA Assembly Co-Chair.

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Martin:
I must take part responsibility for this.
When I met up and discussed with Jeff Estefan about the idea of the joint publication, the idea was indeed to seek some sort of OASIS "imprimatur". As we are all aware, that can only really come from either a specific TC or a Member Section. I sought advice on this, and the "ideal route" suggested was to get our RM TC to endorse the document, as one of the document co-authors is a member of that TC and others in that TC had been involved in the discussions about the paper, rather than members of any other TC.

Following the TC process, the RM TC held a ballot to endorse the document on behalf of the TC. It is published, as are all OASIS TC specs and standards, with the standard IP and disclaimer. As such, IMO, there is no need to further state that it only reflects the views of one TC: it only reflects the views of the authors!

However, indeed some legitimate concerns do arise:
- the important fact that there are other SOA-related OASIS TCs working hard in this field; and
- that in order to have an OASIS imprint on such a joint publication we need some clearer method of internal consultation, where that is desirable (clearly, in this case) and feasible.

I'd be happy to take this up with the Board if you wish. At least two other Board members that I know have also expressed an interest in the issue.

Best regards and see you in Billerica next week.

Peter

Peter F Brown
Managing Director
Pensive S.A., Belgium
 
Pensive S.A. is registered in Belgium, N° 895.677.610 (RPM Brussels)
Registered Office: Avenue de Mercure 13/13, B-1180 Brussels
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