Monday, August 27, 2018

Multiple Vocabulary Facility Progress Report

Since my post in April, 2016, there have been submissions to the OMG (Object Management Group) RFP (the RFP is available at https://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?ad/16-03-04 ).  The goal is to define a standard facility that can be used to implement multiple vocabulary capabilities in implementations of OMG modeling languages.  The submitters have joined together to develop a single specification and submitted a joint draft on February 19, 2018.  There is agreement on a core structure that will enable a modeling language user to select a preferred vocabulary for terms that appear in that user's interactive interface.

However, there are some unresolved issues regarding the details of the specification.  For example, in a single vocabulary, the same term may be used to represent different elements in the same model.  In a business process model, an activity name may be used for different activities in different processes.  The meaning of the activity name depends on the process context.  Thus, a term may represent different concepts in different contexts.  This is fairly common in programming languages and models.  This is a characteristic of a modeling language that affects the representation of elements in the models it creates. Thus restricts the user's selection of terms new elements are added to a model, and it restricts another user who builds another vocabulary to represent the concepts of the model for a different community of users.

There are also issues regarding the integration of an MVF facility with a modeling language implementation.

A new draft specification is expected for the December, 2018, OMG meeting.  OMG makes draft specifications available to OMG members, but does not make specifications publicly available until a final submission is adopted.