Ontology driven business analysis tool

Can ontology-based tools support business analysis practice?

Introduction

Knowledge modelling has the potential of being extremely useful in the area of business analysis. Through ontology-based techniques it becomes possible to solve several ongoing issues faced by existing tools and methods in use. In this article, we’re going to look at a proposal for a novel approach for improving business analysis information and knowledge capture, through a multi-perspective ontology-based system. We’ll focus mainly on the actual idea without going into implementation-specific details.

Current tools and methods

The role of the business analyst involves all sorts of domain modelling activities. These include, for example, the modelling of business processes using Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) graphical language, which is now heavily adopted as base technique. The Unified Modelling Language (UML) is also widely used to model various perspectives of a given domain of interest. Examples are UML class diagrams for modelling static states, activity diagrams to model flows, and a range of other graphical representations to target the other perspectives of a particular domain.

The problem

Tools supporting BPMN, UML, etc., are very good at information capture through visual representations. However, these tools fall short of meeting a number of requirements related to semantics and the ability to share meaning for improved computer-aided decision support. Some of the main issues that persist are:

• Multiple vendor-specific tools targeted at different business analysis modelling perspectives mean that we need to install and run multiple applications that do not readily ‘speak’ with each other. Moreover, these tools stay largely disconnected, complicating the task of information/knowledge maintenance and reuse.
• The semantics of the constructs used for modelling purposes in business analysis are not clear to our information systems. This makes it difficult for these systems to resourcefully assist in problem solving and decision making due to the lack of reasoning and inference capability.
• Interoperability of the representations and models across applications remains an issue because the interpretation of the concepts is loose and not rigorously defined using mathematical underpinning.
• The representations are not exactly defined for the Semantic Web. In a world where web based solutions are increasingly being used, this means that there is a mismatch that exists between the underlying ‘architecture’ of the tools and new technological trends.
• Business rules, constraints and logic are not easy to capture through purely visual and documentation based methods. There is a need for improved ways of capturing these rules.

The idea

A multi-perspective, ontology-based tool to support business analysis

This is a software system that uses the formal definitions provided by various connected ontology modules to support the representation of multiple business analysis perspectives in a holistic way. The formal basis of the ontologies allows semantically sound models to be represented, over which we can run reasoning and inference facilities.

Considerations

Important considerations required in the development of such a tool are identified below:

• The definition of a core ontology of business analysis that provides a common vocabulary for defining different business analysis perspectives.
• The definition of modular ontologies that capture the essence of the multiple business analysis perspectives, e.g., business process specification, requirements engineering, static state description, etc.
• The provision of ‘linking’ mechanisms across the ontologies to facilitate the reuse and reference of concepts across perspectives. This way, the ontological basis is to foster integration and interoperability across the various models developed in business analysis.
• The ability to model business rules and constraints captured through formal logic axioms and rule languages.
• The development of a user-friendly graphical front-end that allows interacting with and switching between the business analysis perspectives. Such an interface should make it easy for the end user to perform all modelling tasks without requiring to know how the underlying ontological mechanisms work.

Potential challenges and how to take the idea forward

Coming up with a multi-perspective, ontology-based, tool to support business analysis is not an easy task. There are several things that need to be understood and challenges overcome in the effort towards developing such a system. Some pertinent points are listed below:

• Ontologies have to be defined for all the perspectives that business analysis targets, for example, business process definitions, requirements engineering, stakeholder analysis and management, risk management, etc. This is a pretty big task that requires the involvement of several subject matter experts. On the other hand, there exist several ontologies out there that could be reused out-of-the-box like the Process Specification Language, OWL-S, FOAF, etc. but they will need to be ‘tweaked’ in order to work in the context of business analysis. Furthermore, rule languages like SWRL would have to be investigated to understand their potential in capturing business logic.
• User interfaces and front-ends need to be developed to allow interacting with the ontology concepts and perspectives without necessarily needing to know about the underlying architecture. Significant consideration would need to be given to user-centred design and user experience that is as good as, if not better than, encountered in existing tools.
• Another challenging area is how we go about incorporating the understanding from enterprise architecture frameworks and reference models into the design and development of the ontology-driven business analysis tool.

Conclusions

It’s time for business analysts to recognise that current tools do not address the whole spectrum of their domain modelling needs and that they are largely disjointed. Improved consolidation of the business analysis perspectives is needed and should be made available as part of a single tool. A good way to start off in the right direction is for business analysts to learn and incorporate ontology modelling tools in their day-to-day activities.