1. Architectural Knowledge Management
with Semantic MediaWiki
Remco de Boer (ArchiXL)
SMWCon Fall 2012
Thu, Oct. 25
Köln, Germany
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2. ArchiXL
• IT / Enterprise architecture consultancy
• Founded in January 2008
• Located in Amersfoort (NL)
• Focus on financial and public sector
• Independent
• Knowledge areas:
– IT architecture (BPM, EAI/SOA,
ECM, IDM, BI, Portals)
– Enterprise architecture methods,
techniques and tools (TOGAF,
ArchiMate)
– Knowledge management (semantic
wikis)
– Domain knowledge (insurance,
pension funds, local government,
education)
12-11-2012 2

3. Today’s agenda
• Background: e-government
• Architectural knowledge in the Dutch e-government
• Using SMW to manage Dutch e-government architectural
knowledge
• Reusing Architectural Knowledge through a system of wikis
– Linking different semantic architecture wikis
• NORA Dashboard
– Analysis through remote queries
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4. Background: ‘e-government’
• Goals (for citizens and businesses):
– Reduce administrative burdens
– Better service provision
• Means (for government agencies):
– Work together
– Align business processes
– Use each other’s information
• This has huge impact on the enterprise architecture of government
agencies!
– business processes
– information landscape
– technology
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5. Example: the environmental permit
• Suppose you want to renovate
and extend your house
• It’s a big operation, so you
need to fell some trees that are
in the way
• You also need to demolish part
of the existing building
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6. Renovating your house, before Oct. 2010
Building permit
Tree felling permit
Demolition permit
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7. Renovating your house, since Oct. 2010
Environmental
permit
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8. Interacting with the e-government
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9. The NORA architecture family
• Establish processes and systems
that ensure interoperability
• Increasing level of specificity
(government  domain 
organization)
• Main constituents:
– Architecture principles
– Architecture models
• Architecture is the fundamental organization of a
system embodied in its components, their
relationships to each other, and to the
environment, and the principles guiding its
design and evolution (ISO-IEC 42010)
• “Principles are general rules and guidelines,
intended to be enduring and seldom amended,
that inform and support the way in which an
organization sets about fulfilling its mission.”
(TOGAF)
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10. Example architecture principles
• No wrong door:
– Citizens and businesses can direct their questions to ‘the government’;
government offices (re)direct to the appropriate service
• Single request, multiple use of data:
– Once the government has obtained certain data from a citizen or
business, no government agency may ask for the same data again.
• Transparent services:
– Citizens and businesses are informed about the state of the requested
service.
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11. Principle (Wiki page)
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12. Statements in NORA
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13. Statements: core attributes
• Page name: a condensed form of the statement that uniquely
identifies it (e.g. “No wrong door”).
• Type: the type of statement
– e.g., ‘Driver’, ‘Goal’, ‘Basic principle’, ‘Derived principle’, ‘Requirement’
• ID
• Statement: The full statement, in the form of a sentence
• Rationale: The reason behind the statement
• Implications: The implications of the statement
• Realizes: References to other statements that are realized through
this statement.
– E.g. “No wrong door” realizes “Findable (consumers can easily find the
provided services)”.
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14. Reusing Architectural Knowledge:
A System of Wikis
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15. Recall the NORA architecture family
• Principles from NORA are
(re)used and refined through the
NORA daughters
• Interesting issues:
– NORA evolves; how do the NORA
daughters assess the impact?
– Question: how are the NORA
principles actually being applied?
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16. Architectural knowledge in a system of Semantic Wikis
NORA
Semantic Wiki
InterWiki links
Semantic Wiki Semantic Wiki Semantic Wiki
NORA NORA NORA
Daughter X Daughter Y Daughter Z
Export Export Export
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17. Domain-specific refinement of NORA principles
NORA Online Wiki ROSA Wiki (education)
NORA Basic principle
Findable
NORA Derived principle
(proxy)
realizes
+ Domain-specific
refinement
... NORA Derived principle Interwiki link
realizes
No wrong door ROSA Principle
...
...
...
...
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18. Domain-specific refinement
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19. NORA Dashboard (view from within a daughter wiki)
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20. Drill-down in NORA Dashboard
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21. Impact analysis: what has changed in NORA?
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22. How are NORA principles being applied?
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23. Wrap up
• Questions? Remarks? Want to share your thoughts?
• Right here, right now...
• ... or contact me:
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