Exporting Object-Process Methodology system models to the Semantic Web
Shmuela Jacobs, Niva Wengrowicz, Dov Dori · 2014
Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is gradually becoming an acceptable good practice, especially for large-scale complex systems. The variety of modeling languages enables detailed representation of domain-specific knowledge of different aspects of a system. Semantic Web concepts provide opportunities for easier and more efficient collaboration between design and verification teams using different modeling tools. IBM Semantic Mediation Container (SMC) is a tool interoperability platform, allowing mediation and synchronization among models in different languages based on their ontologies. We propose integrating into SMC the ability to translate Object-Process Methodology (OPM), the emerging ISO 19450 Standard, which provides a holistic view of the system's function, structure, and behavior. In this paper we describe the first integration stages - defining the OPM ontology in a way that conforms to Semantic Web specifications and developing a module for exporting OPM models from their visual representation to and back from Resource Description Framework (RDF). We discuss the scope of the ontology and different approaches of element representation. We portray the implementation of the export module as an extension to OPM CASE tool (OPCAT). The ontology and export module are validated by round-trip transformation of OPM models from their visual representation to RDF and back by experimenting with OPM experts.