More and more enterprises are currently undertaking projects to integrate their applications. They are finding that one of the more difficult tasks facing them is determining how the data from one application matches semantically with the other applications. Currently there are few methodologies for undertaking this task – most commercial projects just rely on experience and intuition. Taking semantically heterogeneous databases as the prototypical situation, this paper describes how ontology (in the traditional metaphysical sense) can contribute to delivering a more efficient and effective process of matching by providing a framework for the analysis, and so the basis for a methodology. It delivers not only a better process for matching, but the process also gives a better result. This paper describes a couple of examples of this: how the analysis encourages a kind of generalisation that reduces complexity. Finally, it suggests that the benefits are not just restricted to individual integration projects: that the process produces models which can be used as to construct a universal reference ontology – for general use in a variety of types of projects.

The aim of the tutorial is to provide a practical introduction for researchers and practitioners to the BORO methodology, an ontology-based systems re-engineering and modernisation approach. At the core of the methodology is the BORO Foundation. The tutorial will firstly introduce the foundation and then the methodology. It will start with a series of worked examples that explain the philosophical principles underlying the foundation. These will then be developed in further business based worked examples to illustrate how the methodology works and how the philosophical principles drive the methodology and analysis. The examples will showcase how the use of BORO promotes flexibility and reuse of the re-engineered models.

This is the first part of an introduction to a series of tutorials that aim to provide a practical introduction for researchers and practitioners to potential for the use of foundational ontologies in industrial applications, based upon an actual application. These tutorials will be based upon industrial work currently being done using the BORO foundational methodology; an ontology-based systems (and data) re-engineering and modernisation approach. This first part provides an introduction to ontology, particularly foundational ontologies. The second part of the introduction introduces the BORO ontology.
The subsequent tutorials will use this introductory tutorial as a basis, they will walk through a number of illustrative examples of how the BORO methodology has been used to re-engineer data in an industrial context.

Addresses two topics.
Firstly, the issue in current systems engineering practice: is the nested hierarchy of system of systems complex enough?
Secondly, it looks at two systems engineering (IT) issues ontology can help to solve:

• Semantic interoperability
• Semantic legacy modernisation – inheriting complexity

This paper presents a report on work in progress of a Synthesis of (selected) State of the Art Enterprise Ontologies (SSAEO) – which aims to produce a Base Enterprise Ontology to be used as the foundation for the construction of a Core Enterprise Ontology (CEO). The synthesis is intended to harvest the insights from the selected ontologies, building upon their strengths and eliminating – as far as possible – their weaknesses. One of the main achievements of this work is the development of the notion of a person (entities that can acquire rights and obligations) enabling the integration of a number of lower level concepts. In addition, we have already been able to identify some of the common ‘mistakes’ in current enterprise ontologies – and propose solutions.

The central theme of this practical book is that we can build much better computer systems if we re-engineer their business information systems. The book provides the reader with the tools, techniques and understanding of object orientation techniques/re-engineering to enable him or her to improve or build business computing/information systems. As well as showing how, this book also shows that information re-engineering can deliver much better systems by helping the reader to understand why and how the benefits are gained. It shows how to actually go about using what has been learned in the book to re-engineer a system. This may be a commercial project taking months or a personal one done over a couple of weekends. It looks at the problems and offers solutions in an easy practical way. This book should be of interest to system designers, analysts and programmers, information systems managers, database designers and IT development managers.

The aim of this book is to show you how to use business objects to re-engineer your existing information systems into models—and so systems—that are not only functionally richer but also structurally much simpler. It is a practical guide to re-engineering your systems; when you finish reading it, you will be ready to start. (Business objects can also help you to re-engineer the underlying business that is processed by these systems).

This walks through a project where the BORO methodology was used to re-engineer data in a defence architectural framework standard - MODAF. This standard has a UML metamodel. UML has (to an extent) a formal semantics, but was not designed to provide a real world semantics. Hence, MODAF at the start had no top level real world semantics, though it had started to establish middle level real world semantics, within UML’s top level formal semantics. This presentation explaines how MODEM used IDEAS (BORO) to bring the real world semantics in. This includes a detailed study of the improvements needed to the UML model for behaviour.
This is part of a series of tutorials that walk through examples that illustrate how the BORO methodology has been used to re-engineer data in an industrial context.

This tutorial walks through an illustrative case study of how the BORO methodology has been used to radical refactor data in an industrial context. The example is taken from work done reviewing the current practices and artefacts used for the information modelling of the Geospatial and Temporal References (G&TR) in the UK surface ship community and investigating the ways in which the use of ontologies can help to improve them. The themes of this tutorial are refactoring and rational reconstruction.
This is part of a series of tutorials that walk through examples that illustrate how the BORO methodology has been used to re-engineer data in an industrial context.

This tutorial provides an illustrative case study of how the BORO methodology has been used to re-engineer a paradigm shift in the foundations of accounting. It provides a nice example of how a shift in technology creates an opportunity for a new conceptual structure.
This is part of a series of tutorials that walk through examples that illustrate how the BORO methodology has been used to re-engineer data in an industrial context.

This tutorial provides an illustrative case study of how the BORO methodology has been used to improve precision. The case study looks at work done on the ontology of 'Air Control Means' a construct used in military air traffic control as part of a wider air defence ontology. It has these ontological themes; semantic vagueness, rational reconstruction, increased precision, shift from a pen and paper paradigm, fruitfulness.
This is part of a series of tutorials that walk through examples that illustrate how the BORO methodology has been used to re-engineer data in an industrial context.

In common with many other government defence departments, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has realised that it has a plethora of legacy systems that were procured as domain specific with little emphasis given to integration requirements. In particular, it realised that the lack of integration between a significant number of the legacy air defence command and control (AD-C2) systems meant it could not deliver the increased agility needed for joint force AD and that current approaches to integration were unlikely to resolve the problem. They realised that they needed a new approach that demonstrably worked. This paper describes a programme initiated by the MoD to address this problem through the formulation of a novel solution and its demonstration in the tactical AD-C2 environment using a sample of these existing legacy systems. It describes the ontological solution deployed to resolve the 'hard' semantic interoperability challenge. It outlines the physical and semantic architecture that was developed to support this approach and describes the implemented planning and collaborative execution (PACE-based) and semantic interoperability engine (SIE) solution.

This tutorial provides an illustrative example of how the BORO methodology has been used to re-engineer and improve ‘structural constraints’ in existing frameworks. It provides a nice example of how an ontological analysis can reveal the constraints and identify how they can be improved. The case study is taken from a project that developed a common data foundation for an oil and gas enterprise. One area under analysis was cost management. The starting point for the analysis was the NORSOK Z-014 Standard cost coding system. The tutorial looks at its the structural constraints were identified and remedied.
This is part of a series of tutorials that walk through examples that illustrate how the BORO methodology has been used to re-engineer data in an industrial context.

From the perspective of enterprise computing, ontology is seen as a kind detached pure science. When enterprise computing ventures into ontological topics it does not look to ontology to provide it with theories - it devises its own theory-lite solutions. This keynote aims to make a case for joining up these two by identifying an area where enterprise computing can usefully apply ontological theory. It does this using an example; immutability, a current concern in big data. It argues that ontology’s theories about change, in particular McTaggart’s analysis of ways of viewing time in terms of series, provide a strong explanatory framework for enterprise computing’s immutability and have the potential to lead to better solutions. This approach also reveals that there is an aspect of change in computing systems – the epistemic aspect – where a mutable approach (McTaggart’s Series A) provides a better explanatory framework.

Presentation of the report 'An Analysis of Services' prepared for the UK MoD.

This describes a forensic approach to developing a common understanding of Service across business and IT.

The goal of this report is to provide an in-depth common conceptual understanding of services end-to-end across the enterprise – one that encompasses business, IT and technical services and gives a picture of what, in essence, a service is. Prepared for the UK MoD in 2010.