Governance Policies Functional Profile
Service Oriented Architecture is an architectural paradigm for organizing and utilizing distributed capabilities that may be under the control of different ownership domains. Consequently, it is important that organizations that plan to engage in service interactions adopt governance policies and procedures sufficient to ensure that there is standardization across both internal and external organizational boundaries to promote the effective creation and use of SOA-based services.
Governance is expressed through policies and assumes multiple use of focused policy modules that can be employed across many common circumstances.
From inherited abstract Artifact Functional Profile
An artifact is a managed resource within the Semantic Infrastructure.
An artifact is associated with the following capabilities:
- descriptions to enable the artifact to be visible, where the description includes a unique identifier for the artifact and a sufficient, and preferably a machine processible, representation of the meaning of terms used to describe the artifact, its functions, and its effects;
- one or more discovery mechanisms that enable searching for artifacts that best meet the search criteria specified by the service participant; where the discovery mechanism will have access to the individual artifact descriptions, possibly through some repository mechanism;
- accessible storage of artifacts and artifact descriptions, so service participants can access, examine, and use the artifacts as defined.
From inherited abstract Change Functional Profile
Artifact descriptions change over time and their contents will reflect changing needs and context.
Architectural implications of change on the Semantic Infrastructure are reflected in the following capabilities:
- mechanisms to support the storage, referencing, and access to normative definitions of one or more versioning schemes that may be applied to identify different aggregations of descriptive information, where the different schemes may be versions of a versioning scheme itself;
- configuration management mechanisms to capture the contents of the each aggregation and apply a unique identifier in a manner consistent with an identified versioning scheme;
- one or more mechanisms to support the storage, referencing, and access to conversion relationships between versioning schemes, and the mechanisms to carry out such conversions.
From inherited abstract Composition Functional Profile
Artifact Descriptions may capture very focused information subsets or can be an aggregate of numerous component descriptions. Service description is an example of a likely aggregate for which manual maintenance of all aspects would not be feasible.
Architectural implications of composition on the Semantic Infrastructure are reflected in the following capabilities:
- tools to facilitate identifying description elements that are to be aggregated to assemble the composite description;
- tools to facilitate identifying the sources of information to associate with the description elements;
- tools to collect the identified description elements and their associated sources into a standard, referenceable format that can support general access and understanding;
- tools to automatically update the composite description as the component sources change, and to consistently apply versioning schemes to identify the new description contents and the type and significance of change that occurred.
From inherited abstract Governance Functional Profile
Service Oriented Architecture is an architectural paradigm for organizing and utilizing distributed capabilities that may be under the control of different ownership domains. Consequently, it is important that organizations that plan to engage in service interactions adopt governance policies and procedures sufficient to ensure that there is standardization across both internal and external organizational boundaries to promote the effective creation and use of SOA-based services.
Governance is expressed through policies and assumes multiple use of focused policy modules that can be employed across many common circumstances.
SOA governance requires numerous architectural capabilities on the Semantic Infrastructure:
Governance requires that the participants understand the intent of governance, the structures created to define and implement governance, and the processes to be followed to make governance operational. This is provided by capabilities specialized from the inherited Management Profile.
Governance policies are made operational through rules and regulations. This is provided by the following capabilities, most of which are specializations of the inherited Artifact Profile:
- descriptions to enable the rules and regulations to be visible, where the description includes a unique identifier and a sufficient, and preferably a machine process-able, representation of the meaning of terms used to describe the rules and regulations;
- one or more discovery mechanisms that enable searching for rules and regulations that may apply to situations corresponding to the search criteria specified by the service participant; where the discovery mechanism will have access to the individual descriptions of rules and regulations, possibly through some repository mechanism;
- accessible storage of rules and regulations and their respective descriptions, so service participants can understand and prepare for compliance, as defined.
- SOA services to access automated implementations of the Governance Processes.
From inherited abstract Interaction Functional Profile
Descriptions of interactions are important for enabling auditability and repeatability, thereby establishing a context for results and support for understanding observed change in performance or results.
Architectural implications of interactions on the Semantic Infrastructure are reflected in the following capabilities:
- one or more mechanisms to capture, describe, store, discover, and retrieve interaction logs, execution contexts, and the combined interaction descriptions;
- one or more mechanisms for attaching to any results the means to identify and retrieve the interaction description under which the results were generated.
From inherited abstract Interoperability Functional Profile
Descriptions provide up-to-date information on what a resource is, the conditions for interacting with the resource, and the results of such interactions. As such, the description is the source of vital information in establishing willingness to interact with a resource, reachability to make interaction possible, and compliance with relevant conditions of use.
Architectural implications of interoperability on the Semantic Infrastructure are reflected in the following capabilities:
- one or more discovery mechanisms that enable searching for described resources that best meet the criteria specified by a service participant, where the discovery mechanism will have access to individual descriptions, possibly through some repository mechanism;
- tools to appropriately track users of the descriptions and notify them when a new version of the description is available.
From inherited abstract Management Functional Profile
Governance implies management to define and enforce rules and regulations.
Management is provided by the following capabilities:
- an information collection site, such as a Web page or portal, where management information is stored and from which the information is always available for access;
- a mechanism to inform participants of significant management events, such as changes in rules or regulations;
- accessible storage of the specifics of processes followed by management.
From inherited abstract Metrics Functional Profile
Artifact Descriptions include references to metrics which describe the operational characteristics of the subjects being described
Architectural implications of metrics on the Semantic Infrastructure are reflected in the following capabilities:
- access to platform infrastructure monitoring and reporting capabilities
- access to metrics information generated or accessible by related services
- mechanisms to catalog and enable discovery of which metrics are available for a described artifact and information on how these metrics can be accessed;
- mechanisms to catalog and enable discovery of compliance records associated with policies, contracts, and constraints that are based on these metrics.
From inherited abstract Policy Functional Profile
Artifact Descriptions include references to policies defining conditions of use and optionally contracts representing agreement on policies and other conditions.
Architectural implications of policy on the Semantic Infrastructure are reflected in the following capabilities:
- descriptions to enable the policy modules to be visible, where the description includes a unique identifier for the policy and a sufficient, and preferably a machine processible, representation of the meaning of terms used to describe the policy, its functions, and its effects;
- one or more discovery mechanisms that enable searching for policies that best meet the search criteria specified by the service participant; where the discovery mechanism will have access to the individual policy descriptions, possibly through some repository mechanism;
- accessible storage of policies and policy descriptions, so service participants can access, examine, and use the policies as defined.
Policy capabilities are specialization of Artifact capabilities.
From inherited abstract PolicyAndContract Functional Profile
While policy and contract descriptions have much of the same architectural implications as Service Descriptions, mechanisms supporting policies and contracts also have the following architectural implications:
- decision procedures which must be able to measure and render decisions on constraints;
- enforcement of decisions;
- measurement and notification of obligation constraints;
- auditability of decisions, enforcement, and obligation measurements;
- administration of policy and contract language artifacts;
- storage of policies and contracts;
- distribution of policies/contracts;
- conflict resolution or elevation of conflicts in policy rules;
- delegation of policy authority to agents acting on behalf of a client;
- decision procedures capable of incorporating roles and/or attributes for rendered decisions.
From inherited abstract PolicyAndContractLanguage Functional Profile
While policy and contract descriptions have much of the same architectural implications as Service Descriptions, languages supporting policies and contracts also have the following architectural implications:
- expression of assertion and commitment policy constraints;
- expression of positive and negative policy constraints;
- expression of permission and obligation policy constraints;
- nesting of policy constraints allowing for abstractions and refinements of a policy constraint;
- definition of alternative policy constraints to allow for the selection of compatible policy constraints for a consumer and provider;
- composition of policies to combine one or more policies.
Capability Elaborations
This Functional Profile includes, but is not limited to, the following capability elaborations:
- assembly
- complianceDiscovery
- componentAcquisition
- compositionArchive
- compositionChange
- configurationManagement
- discovery
- governanceModel
- governanceService
- identity
- interactionLog
- interactionResults
- interoperabilityDiscovery
- managementInformation
- managementNotification
- managementProcesses
- metadata
- metrics
- metricsDiscovery
- monitor
- policyAdministration
- policyAlternative
- policyAssertion
- policyAudit
- policyAuthorityDelegation
- policyComposition
- policyConflictResolution
- policyConstraint
- policyDecision
- policyDecisionProcedures
- policyDistribution
- policyEnforcement
- policyMetrics
- policyObligation
- policyRefinement
- policyStore
- serviceChangeNotification
- store
- transition
- versioning
Derived From Requirements
- Semantic Infrastructure Requirements::Service Discovery and Governance::Service Policies Service policies help establish constraints on the service specifications and mandate an approach. Policies can be specified around governance, access control and other design and runtime constraints.
assembly capability elaboration
Tools to facilitate identifying description elements that are to be aggregated to assemble the composite description.
complianceDiscovery capability elaboration
Mechanisms to catalog and enable discovery of compliance records associated with policies, contracts, and constraints that are based on these metrics.
componentAcquisition capability elaboration
Tools to facilitate identifying the sources of information to associate with the description elements.
compositionArchive capability elaboration
Tools to collect the identified description elements and their associated sources into a standard, referenceable format that can support general access and understanding.
compositionChange capability elaboration
Tools to automatically update the composite description as the component sources change, and to consistently apply versioning schemes to identify the new description contents and the type and significance of change that occurred.
configurationManagement capability elaboration
Mechanisms to support the storage, referencing, and access to normative definitions of one or more versioning schemes that may be applied to identify different aggregations of descriptive information, where the different schemes may be versions of a versioning scheme itself.
discovery capability elaboration
One or more discovery mechanisms that enable searching for artifacts that best meet the search criteria specified by the service participant; where the discovery mechanism will have access to the individual artifact descriptions, possibly through some repository mechanism.
governanceModel capability elaboration
Governance Model with capabilities to create, destroy, edit, maintain governance policy.
The Governance Model implementation includes the following capabilities:
- unique identification for each policy the Governance meta-model describing term representations, functions, and effects of a policy description (model)
- services enabling access, examination, and use of the policies.
- notifications to inform participants of significant governance events, such as changes in policies, rules, or regulations;
- comprehensive, accessible, Governance Model;
- services to access implementations of the Governance Processes
- Rules and regulation models are accessible from the Governance model; they all have meta-models describing their terms, functions, effects; they all have discovery and search mechanisms accessible through some repository
governanceService capability elaboration
SOA services to access automated implementations of the Governance Processes.
identity capability elaboration
Descriptions which include a unique identifier for the artifact.
interactionLog capability elaboration
One or more mechanisms to capture, describe, store, discover, and retrieve interaction logs, execution contexts, and the combined interaction descriptions.
interactionResults capability elaboration
One or more mechanisms for attaching to any results the means to identify and retrieve the interaction description under which the results were generated.
interoperabilityDiscovery capability elaboration
One or more discovery mechanisms that enable searching for described resources that best meet the criteria specified by a service participant, where the discovery mechanism will have access to individual descriptions, possibly through some repository mechanism.
managementInformation capability elaboration
An information collection site, such as a Web page or portal, where management information is stored and from which the information is always available for access.
managementNotification capability elaboration
A mechanism to inform participants of significant management events, such as changes in rules or regulations.
managementProcesses capability elaboration
Accessible storage of the specifics of processes followed by management.
metadata capability elaboration
A representation of the meaning of terms used to describe the artifact, its functions, and its effects.
metrics capability elaboration
Access to metrics information generated or accessible by related services
metricsDiscovery capability elaboration
Mechanisms to catalog and enable discovery of which metrics are available for a described artifact and information on how these metrics can be accessed.
monitor capability elaboration
Access to platform infrastructure monitoring and reporting capabilities.
policyAdministration capability elaboration
Administration of policy and contract language artifacts.
policyAlternative capability elaboration
Definition of alternative policy constraints to allow for the selection of compatible policy constraints for a consumer and provider.
policyAssertion capability elaboration
Expression of assertion and commitment policy constraints.
policyAudit capability elaboration
Auditability of decisions, enforcement, and obligation measurements.
policyAuthorityDelegation capability elaboration
Delegation of policy authority to agents acting on behalf of a client.
policyComposition capability elaboration
Composition of policies to combine one or more policies.
policyConflictResolution capability elaboration
Conflict resolution or elevation of conflicts in policy rules.
policyConstraint capability elaboration
Expression of positive and negative policy constraints.
policyDecision capability elaboration
Decision procedures which must be able to measure and render decisions on constraints.
policyDecisionProcedures capability elaboration
Decision procedures capable of incorporating roles and/or attributes for rendered decisions.
policyDistribution capability elaboration
Distribution of policies/contracts.
policyEnforcement capability elaboration
Enforcement of decisions.
policyMetrics capability elaboration
Measurement and notification of obligation constraints.
policyObligation capability elaboration
Expression of permission and obligation policy constraints.
policyRefinement capability elaboration
Nesting of policy constraints allowing for abstractions and refinements of a policy constraint.
policyStore capability elaboration
Storage of policies and contracts.
serviceChangeNotification capability elaboration
Tools to appropriately track users of the descriptions and notify them when a new version of the description is available.
store capability elaboration
Accessible storage of artifacts and artifact descriptions, so service participants can access, examine, and use the artifacts as defined.
transition capability elaboration
One or more mechanisms to support the storage, referencing, and access to conversion relationships between versioning schemes, and the mechanisms to carry out such conversions.
versioning capability elaboration
Configuration management mechanisms to capture the contents of the each aggregation and apply a unique identifier in a manner consistent with an identified versioning scheme.
