Better, Faster, Cheaper ACH:An MDA ApproachRichard Mark Soley, Ph.D.

Chairman and CEOObject Management Group, Inc.

That’s the Great Thing about Standards

• The financial payments world is a mess.• “Old” protocols: SWIFT FIN, FEDwire, Visa,

Mastercard, dozens of ACH protocols• “New” protocols: SWIFTnet and the rest of the

XML family: TWIST, IFX, FIX, etc.• Are we replacing a mess of proprietary protocols

with a mess of proprietary standards?• Aren’t all of these payments and ACH standards

special cases of a general concept: secure, reliable financial information transfer

XML Changes Everything!• Throw out those pesky objects!• Everything old is boring!• All problems are now solved!• All your software pain gone forever!

It’s a REVOLUTION!

Everything Old is New Again• Unfortunately I’m old enough to remember

– Artificial Intelligence– Object Technology– Distributed Computing– XML– Web Services– Enterprise Service Bus– Service Oriented Architecture

• This technology does everything! It makes miracles, changes water to wine…

OK, Calm Down• Got that out of your system?• Have we seen this before?

OMG’s Vision

The Global Information Appliance

Not too bad for electrical power

…but a mess for telephony!

OMG’s Mission Since 1989• Develop an architecture, using object

technology, for distributed application integration, guaranteeing:– reusability of components– interoperability & portability– basis in commercially available software

• Specifications freely available• Implementations exist• Member-controlled not-for-profit

Who Are OMG?

ArtinSoftBank of

AmericaBEA SystemsBorlandBoeingCACompuwareDaimlerChrysl

erEDSEurocontrol

FujitsuGSAHewlett

PackardHitachiHyperionIBMIONAio SoftwareKabiraKennedy

Carter

John DeereLockheed

MartinMITREMotorolaNASANational

ArchivesNATONokiaNUWCNTT DoCoMo

OASISOracleSandia LabsSAPSAS InstituteSun MicrosystemsSWIFTUnisysVISAW3C

What is the Priority?

Analysis, Design, Development,Test & Deployment: 10%

Maintenance & Integration: 90%

Lesson: Software lifecycle costs are in the back end.

What is the Point?• Reuse• Interoperability• Portability• Maintainability• Productivity• Business Alignment

Because Otherwise We’re All Just…

…roadkill on the information highway!!

We Must Be Able To…• Capture enduring design• Separate capture of process from

engineering of implementation• Automate the latter as much as possible• Design-in agility

• The key ideas: enduring, automated and more importantly agility

The Model Driven Architecture

• OMG’s Model Driven Architecture (MDATM) initiative is aimed precisely at this problem

• You have an opportunity to increase your bottom line by integrating your assets

• Industry standards support that goal by future-proofing your application design

• The MDA will help you integrate the mix you have today, and give you an architecture to support the unexpected

• Focus on integrating legacy applications• Ensure smooth integration of COTS applications• Models are testable and simulatable• The aim: a 20-year software architecture

Model Driven Architecture

http://www.omg.org/mda/

Model Driven Architecture• An initiative of the Object Management

Group (OMG)• A brand for tools based on OMG’s UML

and MOF open standards• A set of specifications defined by OMG’s

open, worldwide process.

MDA Adoption in Verticals

• Vertical market groups are thriving on MDA approach, both within OMG and other groups:

– Financial Services– Electronic Commerce– Healthcare– Life Sciences Research– Manufacturing– Space & Ground Systems– Telecommunications– Legacy Integration– ISO 20022, UN/CEFACT

MDA is Proven in Software Development

• Many excellent proofs-of-concept:– Banks, railroads, trading, insurance,

manufacturing, healthcare, etc.– Adopted by UN/CEFACT, SWIFT, ACORD,

HL7 and other key standards players• Careful studies prove the point

– The Middleware Company (TMC)– Electronic Data Systems (EDS)

MDA: More than Software• In the last year, MDA has been used to

apply UML to a growing number of new digital infrastructures:– Systems engineering– Business process modeling– Business rules modeling– Data/information modeling– Process definitions in patents

• Software was just the first application

UML Modeling is Widespread• Even outside OMG’s own 18 vertical-

market standardization groups, MDA is being used to leverage UML process description in many other settings:– ACORD: insurance industry standards– HL7: healthcare standards– SWIFT: financial payments interoperability

SWIFT: Major Financial Player• Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial

Telecommunication established in 1973 by 239 banks in 15 countries

• Now serving 7,650 institutions in 200 countries, peaking at almost 10 million transactions a day and totaling 2 trillion transactions a year, with 99.99% uptime; upgrading in 2004 to worldwide IP-based SWIFTNet

• Through automation, reduces members costs for Payments, Securities, Foreign Exchange, Treasury and Trade

• Owned by financial industry members• Based on open standards• Global financial community’s foremost messaging

infrastructure

SWIFT Leverage of UML• SWIFT now uses a three-layered approach to

defining standards, with processes defined in UML and (currently) delivered as XML Schemas– Business-oriented approach to definition– Formal involvement of all transaction parties– Involvment of industry experts– Implementation-neutral– Defined in UML and automatically translated– Allows rapid changes to infrastructure and agile

response to changing business requirements

SWIFT Standards Process

Business AnalysisBusiness Analysis

Requirements AnalysisRequirements Analysis

Logical AnalysisLogical Analysis

Logical DesignLogical Design

Technical DesignTechnical Design

Technical ImplementationTechnical Implementation

Understand the business

What is the communication

problem

Define the solution

Refine the solution

Physical implementation

(automated)

Effect on ACH• How is all this relevant to ACH?

– SWIFT’s SWIFTnet protocols are an example of a protocol generated from business models

– A general definition of financial transfer can be used as a “Rosetta Stone” for all of the “old” and “new” protocols

– In the face of constant infrastructure change, it’s the only hope

– We can’t keep rebuilding all of our systems every time some technology has a good idea!

OMG Compliance Consortium

• The fastest-growing problem in IT– Regulatory compliance grows more

complicated by the day– Example: Sarbanes-Oxley in the US

• Standard models to ensure compliance• Standardized best practices• Newsletter, workshops, webinars,

seminars, research, support,…

UML/MDA are Transforming• Not only are UML and MDA about

transformation, but they are transforming business processes in the digital infrastructure

• For more information:– MDA: http://www.omg.org/mda/– OMG: http://www.omg.org/– Soley: soley@omg.org