OASIS has issued a call for participation in a newly formed Business-Centric Methodology Technical Committee. The BCM TC members plan to create a specification which will "provide business managers with a set of clearly defined methods with which to acquire agile and interoperable e-business information systems." The TC proposal calls for taking a minimalist approach, seeking to find the right mix [of solutions] critical to succeed by effectively reaching the target management audience, allowing business people to think in business terms. Crucial to this endeavor is the scope of the TC being focused on agile information interoperability rather than legacy systems integration. BCM also avoids a narrow focus around vendor technology components and instead focuses on the business mechanisms required." The specification design will build upon existing research and technology such as the project work developed at the Department of Defense, Defense Finance and Accounting Service. The BCM TC Co-Chairs are Bruce Peat (eProcess Solutions) and Mike Lubash (DFAS). The first meeting of the BCM Technical Committee will be held on Monday, June 9, 2003 as a teleconference call.

BMC TC Proposal Details

Goals

The methodology will be captured in a resulting specification as output from the TC's efforts. The specification will provide business managers with a set of clearly defined methods with which to acquire agile and interoperable e-business information systems.

The BCM TC will also extend upon existing bodies of work, such as the project work developed at the Department of Defense, Defense Finance and Accounting Service (http://www.dfas.mil; reference site: http://www.dfas.info) and link this to the work of applicable OASIS TCs.

The BCM interoperability specification will be focused in three primary areas; (1) BCM templates, (2) information architecture, and (3) connections:

1. BCM Templates: are pre-constructed components to common e-business scenarios that conform to and are illustrative of the BCM approach. Added to this is the linking and switching between these components to deliver easy interoperability. Key to enabling this linking and switching is vectoring based on scenarios of the business constraints and the use of context mechanisms. The specification will provide an illustrative collection of BCM templates which an organization can use as an initial basis for developing their own artifacts and products to solve their interoperability problems. (It is anticipated that particular industry sectors within OASIS will participate in defining these, along with appropriate connection roadmaps).

2. Information Architecture: provides the underpinning for the templates and the understanding of how the individual components collaborate in BCM based solutions. For example in enhancing interoperability it is necessary to capture each artifact for interpretation of messages in order to better understand the semantics of the message. Collectively these relationships, links and structures provide the structure of the organization's ontology and how this would be shared within communities of interests.

3. Connections: the connections effort will work with business users and experts to develop scenarios with which to demonstrate the walkthrough of the BCM templates to validate interoperability across multiple deployed environments. The focus is on how BCM enhances and leverages existing frameworks and methodologies, and particularly specifications of other OASIS TCs. The deliverables include materials relevant to business managers' needs that will enable them to rapidly understand, assimilate and plan their own interoperability adoption strategies.

Deliverables

List of deliverables with projected dates:

• Business-Centric Methodology (BCM) specification outline - June 2003
• First draft of BCM specification body - July 2003
• Public review of BCM body - August 2003
• Template examples appendix draft - September 2003
• Linking & Switching appendix draft - October 2003
• Information Architecture appendix draft - November 2003
• Public review release of BCM approach - December 2003
• Formally approved OASIS BCM v1.0 specification - February 2004

TC Proposers

Eligible persons committed to the above meeting schedule:

• Terry Bjornsen, bjornsen_terence@bah.com, Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH)
• Ralph Stout, ralph_stout@iwaysoftware.com, iWay Software
• Kit (Christopher) Lueder, kit@mitre.org, MITRE Corporation
• Murali Iyengar, MURALI.A.IYENGAR@saic.com, SAIC
• John Weiler, john@ichnet.org, Interoperability Clearinghouse (ICH)
• David RR Webber, gnosis_@compuserve.com, individual member
• Bruce Peat, BPeat@eProcessSolutions.com, individual member
• Mike Lubash, MIKE.LUBASH@DFAS.MIL, individual member
• Eric Okin, ERIC.OKIN@DFAS.mil, individual member