New Task Group
CRIS Architecture & Development
Maximilian Stempfhuber
RWTH Aachen University Library
stempfhuber@bth.rwth-aachen.de
Agenda
A view to research information
The role of CERIF
As a data model
In the CRIS development process
Why a new Task Group?
Task Group’s Mission
Information & Research Process
Project management
Research
organisations
(Human)Resources
Research
programmes
Infrastructure
Research
strategy
Publication
State
of the management
Art
Experiments
Communication
Proposal
Management
Research data Knowledge
Prizes,
patents Wealth
Software
Excellence
Expertise
Commercial products
Work programm
Research
Information
Project proposal
Project
Results
Transfer
Wealth creation
CRIS
Semantic & Temporal Aspects
Current Research Information System
Org. Unit
Person
Expertise
CV
Project
Funding
Programme
Results
Publications
Events
Software
Patents
CERIF
A Data Model for CRIS
Common European Research Information Format
Funding Programme
Person
Skills
Project
Publication
Organisation
Service
Equipment
CV
Patent
Product
Event
Classification
(Semantics )
CERIF
A Data Model for CRIS
Common European Research Information Format
•
•
•
•
Entity Relationship Model
Generators for several DBMS
CERIF-XML as exchange format
Code of Good Practice
• Commercial software systems
• Proprietary implementations
Same Model…
… different results
Current Process
RESPONSIBILITY
PROCESS
Concept
Anyone
Reject
Review
Marketing Plan
- Market Analysis
- Cost benefit analysis/
economic model
Concept Acceptance
RTD-Promoter
Accept
RIS
proposal
Project Manager
Reject
RTD-Promoter
Steering Group
Process
CONTROLS
RIS Proposal
- Definition of Purpose
- Identification of Users
- Definition of Content
RIS Proposal Acceptance
Accept
RIS
Design
Development Function
Publishing Function
Reject
RTD-Promoter
Steering Group
RIS Design Plan
- Database Specification
- Structure and Presentation
- Classification and Indexing
- Search and Navigation
RIS Development Acceptance
Ongoing
Accept
Collection Function
Production Function
Marketing Function
Information
Processing
RTD-Promoter
Steering Group
Reject
M
a
i
n
t
e
n
a
n
c
e
Structured
Output
RIS Information Processing Plan
- Data Collection Plan
- Collection Guidelines
- Quality Control Plan
- Acceptance Test Plan
Information processing acceptance
Accept
Publishing/
Distribution
Distribution Plan
Marketing Plan (revisited)
Economoic model (implementation)
Maintenance Plan /
Acceptance
Code of Good Practice
• Organizational view
• Covers whole process
• Waterfall-like
Missing Aspects
• (Software) Architecture
• Technology
• Reference
Implementation
Looking Beyond…
… the CRIS domain
• Administrative systems at the institution
• Local information systems (OAR etc.)
• Community systems (ResearchGate etc.)
• Clusters of Excellence (Idea League)
• Virtual Organizations (Fraunhofer,
Helmholtz, Leibniz, Max-Planck)
CERIF-CRIS Connectivity
-CRIS
ns, Org. Units,
s, Events,
rammes, etc.
CERIF-XML
Institutional
Repository
CERIF-CRIS
Projects, Persons, Org. Units,
Publications, Events,
Research Programmes, etc.
Research Data
Repository
Finance
CERIF-XML
Human
Resources
CERIF-CR
Projects, Persons,
Publications, E
Research Program
Project
Management
Community CRIS
euroCRIS Strategy
Enhance
existing CRIS
Connect CRIS
with a common
CERIF wrapper
euroCRIS
Create standardized,
reusable services
Fill gaps with
new CRIS
The Gap…
… between model and implementation
Agreements, Standards,
Best Practices, Re-Use
low
high
Concrete System
Code of Good Practice
CERIF
What’s Missing?
Business Logic
Data Access Layer
CERIF
Database Management System
Operating System
CERIFXML
Search, Harvesting, Services
Code of Good Practice
User Interface
Why is it important?
20 : 80
CERIF
Development
& Testing
What can be gained…
… for euroCRIS as an organization?
• Community building
• Exchange
• Reuse
• Evolution
• Spreading ideas & Connectivity
… beyond CERIF
What can be gained…
… for euroCRIS members?
• Using building blocks
• Reducing development & testing
• Getting additional functionality
• Opening ones system & content
… even in combination with
commercial software
Requirements
•
•
•
•
•
Requirements engineering
(Functional) Software specification
Code of Good Practice (Updated)
Best Practice Examples / DRIS (Updated)
Available (commercial) solutions
Database Systems
• Paradigms (Relational, Object-Oriented,
XML, multi-dimensional DBMS)
• Systems (IBM DB2, Oracle, PostgreSQL;
commercial vs. Open Source)
• Interfaces (ODBC, JDBC, Perl DBI, PEAR)
• Query languages (SQL, OQL, XQuery)
• Schema evolution / migration
Database Abstraction
• Separating software architecture from
the (physical) database model
• Encapsulation vs. normalization
• Object-Relational-Mapping (ORM)
• Schema evolution / migration
• Convention over configuration (Coding
by convention) & tool support
Programming & Managing
• Re-use of modules and libraries
• Generating CRIS Open Source code base
• Share experience with colleagues
– Scalability (e.g. middleware)
– Reliability (e.g. components)
– Integrated Development Environments (IDE)
– Development process (SCRUM, V-Model, MDA, …)
Software Architecture
• Permanent evolution vs. re-use
– Development philosophy → architecture
– Domain modeling → architecture
– Software frameworks → architecture
– Tools support → architecture
– Programming languages → architecture
• Current buzz words: SOA/REST, Cloud
Computing, RIA, BPM, Portal/CMS
Functional Modules
•
•
•
•
•
•
Self containment
Standardized interfaces
Standardized functionality
Standardized input (e.g. CERIF-XML)
Standardized output?
CRIS plug-in architecture needed
Workflow
•
•
•
•
•
Business Process Modeling (BPM)
Workflows at the UI level
Quality assurance in CRIS
Event/data-driven services
Drives re-usable software modules (e.g.
input verification, data acquisition) &
processes
User Interface
•
•
•
•
•
Common / consistent user experience
Re-use of interaction patterns
Sharing solutions (e.g. CSS frameworks)
Sharing knowledge (e.g. accessibility)
Integration CRISs and services
Information Design
• Common ways for expressing
– Semantic relationships
– Temporal aspects
– Qualities & quantities
• Software modules for visualizations
– Network graphs
– Timelines
– Charts, …
• Experiences with commercial software
Statistics & Reporting
• Defining recurring information needs
• Standardizing on basic data formats
• Statistics / reporting as a (re-usable /
commercial) service
• Software modules
• Layout templates (e.g. XSLT, XML FO)
External Access
• Defining public CRIS services
– Functional specification
– Interface specification
– I/O format specification
• Services
– Searching for entities
– Data analysis / information extraction
Data Exchange
•
•
•
•
•
Harvesting interfaces
Entity extraction
Replication
Federation
Schema mapping
TG Roadmap
• Establishing TG Mission
• Recruiting TG Members
• Initial Survey: Where are we now?
Where are we going?
– Technologies used (DMBS, languages etc.)
– Methodologies used (SOA, SCRUM, outsourcing etc.)
– Gap analysis: Topics for support & exchange,
common modeling of CRIS architectures, abstraction
layers, module specifications etc.