Policy Awareness & Data Reference Model (DRM)

Amit K. MaitraAF CIO-Architecture

Inter-Agency DRM Working GroupMarch 21, 2005

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CONTEXT

Global Environment Changing Technologies Revolutionary Moments: The Mandate Leadership

Decisions Processes

Department of Homeland Security Department of Air Force

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Underlying Theme

Fully integrated information systems for a shared data environment

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Focus

Information, Access, Authorization, Emerging Technologies Data Accessibility, Commonality, and

Compatibility Design Data Dictionary Data Locale Security & Privacy Assurance

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Global Environment

Characteristics Geographically distributed, dissimilar elements

of varying capabilities and responsibilities Data distributed to and redistributed among

system facilities, interconnected by both private and shared public communications networks

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Changing Technologies

A Gentle Transition From XML to Resource Description Framework (RDF)

The purpose of RDF is to give a standard way of specifying data “about” something

Advantage of using RDF

If widely used, RDF will help make XML more interoperable

Promotes the use of standardized vocabularies ... standardized types (classes) and standardized properties

Provides a structured approach to designing XML documents

The RDF format is a regular, recurring pattern

Quickly identifies weaknesses and inconsistencies of non-RDF-compliant XML designs

Helps us better understand our data!

Positions data for the Semantic Web!

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Changing Technologies: Web Ontology Language (OWL)

RDF has limited expressive capability-- Mostly limited to taxonomic descriptions

The things we model have complex relationships so we need to capture many different facets, or restrictions on class and property descriptions

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Revolutionary Moments: The Mandate

“Our success depends on agencies working as a team across traditional boundaries to serve the

American people, focusing on citizens rather than

individual agency needs.” ~ President George W.

Bush

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No common framework or methodology to describe the data and information that supports the processes, activities, and functions of the business

No definition of the handshake or partnering aspects of information exchange

Existing systems offer diffused content that is difficult to manage, coordinate, and evolve

Information is inconsistent and/or classified inappropriately

Without a common reference, data is easier to duplicate than integrate

No common method to share data with external partners

Limited insight into the data needs of agencies outside the immediate domain

Data and Information context is rarely defined Stove piped boundaries, no central registry Lack of funding and incentive to share Data sensitivity and security of data New laws/issues result in continuous adding of

databases that can not share data

Primary Issues and Information Sharing Barriers

The Current Situation: The Federal Government is less than efficient in performing its business and meeting customer needs

due to data sharing inefficiencies caused by stove-piped data boundaries

Stove-Piped Data Boundaries“As Is State”

Have C

reate

d

HHS

INDUSTRY

Illustrative

Illustrative

CDC

DHS

TSA

USDA

DOI

ENERGY

LABOR

FDA INS

Denotes data and information sets within agencies.

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The Solution: The Data Reference Model (DRM)

Subject Area

Data Object

DataProperty

DataRepresentation

DataClassification

The DRM provides:

A framework to enable horizontal and vertical information sharing that is independent of agencies and supporting systems

A framework to enable agencies to build and integrate systems that leverage data from within or outside the agency domain

A framework that facilitates opportunities for sharing with citizens, external partners and stakeholders

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MODEL DRIVEN ARCHITECTUREMODEL DRIVEN ARCHITECTURE

A virtual representation of all physical data sources:

- Applications are to be decoupled from data sources

- Details of data storage and retrieval are to be abstracted

- Are to be easily extended to new information sources

The Architecture

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The Structure

META OBJECT FACILITYMETA OBJECT FACILITY

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The Tools

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Department of Homeland Security and Federated Data Management Approach

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The Result: Interagency Information Federation

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Paradigm Shift

MDA is fundamental change MDA rests on MOF It is the best architecture for integration It shifts data architecture from Entity

Relationship Diagramming (ERD) to a Business Context (Interoperability/Information Sharing)

Business & Performance Driven ApproachBusiness & Performance Driven Approach

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Concerns

To what extent the government agencies, Customers, Partners are willing to participate along the Lines of Business (LOB), thereby underscoring the importance of working toward a common goal: Collective Action IAW National Security/National Interests criteria

These need to be tested and validated against uniquely tailored performance indicators: Inputs, Outputs, and Outcomes

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Leadership at DoD

• Decisions• Processes

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Decisions

“Net-Centric Data Strategy& Communities of Interest

(COI)”

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End-User Consumer End-User Producer

B A R R I E R B A R R I E R B A R R I E R B A R R I E R

“What data exists?““How do I access the data?”“How do I know this data is what I need?”“How can I tell someone what data I need?”

“How do I share my data with others?” “How do I describe my data so others can understand it?”

Organization “A” Organization “B” Organization “C”

User is unaware this data exists

User knows this data existsbut cannot access it because of organizational and/or technical barriers

?

The DoD Net-Centric Data Strategy aims at breaking down barriers to information sharing…

User knows data exists and can access it but may not know how to make use of it due to lack of under- standing of what data represents

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The Net-Centric Data Strategy is a key enabler of the Department’s transformation...

The Strategy describes key goals to achieving net-centric data management…

• The Strategy (signed May 9, 2003) provides the foundation for managing the Department’s data in a net-centric environment, including:

Ensuring data are visible, accessible, and understandable when needed and where needed to accelerate decision making

“Tagging” of all data (intelligence, non-intelligence, raw, and processed) with metadata to enable discovery by known and unanticipated users in the Enterprise

Posting of all data to shared spaces for users to access except when limited by security, policy, or regulations

Organizing around Communities of Interest (COIs) that are supported by Warfighting, Business, Enterprise Information Environment, and Intelligence Mission Areas and their respective Domains.

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COIs are a key ‘implementer’ of data strategy goals…

Tag data assets with COI-defined metadata that enables it to be searched (visible)

Organize data assets using taxonomies developed by experts within the COI

Define the structure and business rules for operating with data and information (e.g. define data models, schema, interfaces)

Identify, define, specify, model, and expose data assets to be reused by the Enterprise as services

Enable Data to beEnable Data to beTrustedTrusted

Enable DataEnable DataInteroperabilityInteroperability

Make DataMake DataAccessibleAccessible

Enable Data to beEnable Data to beUnderstandableUnderstandable

Make Data VisibleMake Data Visible

Key Goals Key COI Actions:

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Blue Force Tracking (BFT) COI Example Implementation of the Data Strategy…

BFT Content Providers BFT Service Consumers

FBCB2/EPLRS

TacticalInternet FBCB2

JVMFIP/MCG

BFTSVC

XMLSOAP

FBCB2/EPLRS

TacticalInternet FBCB2

JVMFIP/MCG

BFTSVC

XMLSOAP

Air Feed

ADSITADIL-J

L-16BFTSVC

XMLSOAP

FBCB2/MTS/L-Band

GroundStation

JVMFMTS

BFTSVC

RM FBCB2XML

SOAP

MMC

GroundStation

BFTSVC

RM MMCXML

SOAP

MDACT/USMC

EPLRS/CNR IOW

VDXIP

BFTSVC

XMLSOAP

BFT ServicePI

CI

BFT ServicePI

CI

BFT ServicePI

CI

BFT ServicePI

CI

Web Services Info Grid

BFT ServicePI

CI

NCESIntegration

BFT Service(www.bft.smil)

Ad/SubPropagation

Query

InfoDelivery

Filtering

QoS Consolidation

NCESService

DiscoverySecurity Messaging ESM

Efficient“on-demand”info service