Semantic Technology for Logistics Systems Interoperability and Modernization

ABSTRACT:Typically, an organization like Air Force Material Command (AFMC) has a large computing environment which grows organically over a period of years with a mix of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) and custom applications, often with overlap and gaps in functionality. Understanding this application environment what is there and who uses it, and the purpose being served can be very difficult. The Praeses team proposes development of Connote, a solution that will provide large organizations, like AFMC, the capability to inventory, document and visualize software systems. Once completed, the mature application will give organizations the means to efficiently and cost-effectively analyze a highly complex system environment leading to a much improved ability to manage its data. The Connote prototype, envisioned in Phase I, will include a parser to generate a parse tree of a target system (initially COBOL), a triple-store database to store the systems structure, and a basic user interface to view the structure. Connote will eventually include multiple ontologies, each focused on a specific subject. A successful Connote application will effectively uncover system data and relationships at significant performance gains over traditional approaches. BENEFIT:The ultimate goal is for Connote to become a highly functional tool to discover the business knowledge embedded in an organizations current systems. Through the use of specific ontologies, logical inferencing and semantic web tools, Connote will provide the needed cross-functional documentation capability in a more efficient, less-costly manner for the enterprise user. This should yield significant value to AFMC, any DoD organization or private business as a means to facilitate system integration/modernization efforts. Potential benefits of Connote include the ability to: 1) correlate data structures both from within a common system and language or across different systems and languages, 2) follow data flow between programs and systems, 3) map standard domain semantics to code, 4) quickly discover where decisions are made and transforms are applied, 5) visualize program, system, and data structures, 6) define one-stop repository for system and program documentation, and 7) link code with documentation. The potential target market includes all organizations with multiple large-scale software systems that would benefit from the improved performance that integration provides. Organizations must, prior to any large-scale integration, gain visibility into their application stack. Failure to do so will very likely lead to a failed integration/modernization effort for the organization at significant costs in time, expense and business disruption. Connote reduces the time and effort required to gain this visibility in large computing environments (including AFMC, other DoD organizations and private businesses) and provides a significant advantage over manual system analysis processes. This is potentially a very large target market within which Connote would be used.