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Modern software architectures reflect adva … Modern software architectures reflect advances in shared services delivery through service oriented architecture (SOA), master data management and data governance policies, and increasingly sophisticated, multi-media delivery and end-user interactions that leverage World Wide Web based technologies. Semantic Web technologies are beginning to play a significant role in each of these arenas, marking a turning point in the evolution of the Web and software engineering in general. There is increasing convergence in terms of methodology, language, and tool support to address the needs of software architects and other practitioners who require bridging technologies – between traditional software engineering, as embodied in Model Driven Architecture (MDA) and modelling languages such as the Unified Modelling Language (UML) and the Semantic Web, through the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the Web Ontology Language (OWL), for example. The Semantic Web Best Practice and Deployment Working Group (SWBPD) in W3C included a Software Engineering Task Force (SETF) to investigate potential benefits. The Object Management Group (OMG)’s Ontology Definition Metamodel (ODM), spearheaded by the Ontology Platform Special Interest Group (PSIG), has become an international standard (formally adopted by the OMG in October 2006), and is on its way to becoming an ISO standard.
Advantages of applying Semantic Web technologies to software engineering include reusability and extensibility of data models, improvements in data quality, enhanced discovery, and automated execution of workflows. According to SETF’s note A Semantic Web Primer for Object-Oriented Software Developers, the Semantic Web can serve as a platform on which domain models can be created, shared and reused. What other potential benefits might be gained by applying Semantic Web technologies to software engineering? Could the Web-based, semantically rich formality of OWL be combined with emerging model driven development tools such as the Eclipse Modelling Framework to provide some badly needed improvements in both the process and products of software development activities? How should practitioners go about transitioning legacy software applications to ontology-based approaches and what software is needed to support development teams with intelligent semantic-based assistive tools? What is it about the amalgamation of OWL, UML and the Model Driven Architecture (MDA) that could make a difference? There appear to be a number of strong arguments in favour of bringing these technologies and methods together, but consensus on the best way forward has yet to emerge. This workshop seeks to build on prior events that have begun to address this important area. have begun to address this important area.
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