Semantic Reasoning with Refined REA-EO Primitives

Semantic Reasoning with Refined REA-EO Primitives

Guido L. Geerts – University of DelawareSergio de Cesare – Brunel University

CONFENIS 20126th International Conference on Research and

Practical Issues of Enterprise Information Systems

Ghent, Belgium

September 20

The Resource-Event-Agent Enterprise Ontology (REA-EO)

Economic Event

Economic Resource

InsideAgent

stock-flowaccountable

OutsideAgent

participates

REA-EOSTEREOTYPICAL BUSINESS PROCESS DEFINITION

BUSINESS PROCESS SPECIFICATION (INSTANTIATION) WITH SEMANTIC (REA-EO) ANNOTATIONS

duality

<< Economic Event>>

Sale

<< Economic Resource>>

Product

<<stock-flow>>with

<<Economic Event>>

Cash Receipt

<< Economic Resource>>

Cash

<<duality>>applies-to

<<Inside Agent>>SalesPerson

<<accountable>>has

<<Inside Agent>>Cashier<<accountable>>

has

<<Outside Agent>>Customer

<<participates>>with

<<participates>>with

<<stock-flow>>with

How to use the REA-EO Semantics (1)

Augmented Intensional Reasoning (Geerts and McCarthy 2000)

DATABASEvalue(customer,'0002',customer_name,'Grabski'). value(sale,'0001',sale_nr,'0001').

SEMANTIC ANNOTATIONSrea(sale,event). rea(customer,agent). rea(product,resource).

CONCEPT DEFINITIONSclaim(Agent,AgentValue,Event,EventValue,FutureEvent):-dualrel(Event,Dual,FutureEvent), part(Event,Dual,DualValue,EventValue),not relpart(Event, EventValue, Dual,FutureEvent, FutureEventValue), control(Event,Control,Agent), relpart(Event,EventValue,Control,Agent,AgentValue).

CONCEPT INSTANTIATIONS (Semantic Information Retrieval)

Agent AgentValue Event EventValue FutureEvent

Intension Extension Intension Extension Intension

customer '0001' cash_receipt '0002' sale

vendor '0001' purchase '0002' cash_disbursement

vendor '0001' purchase '0003' cash-disbursement


Knowledge-Intensive Design Definition of Modeling Rules in terms of REA-EO Semantics

(Geerts 1993; Rockwell and McCarthy 1999; Hruby 2006)

Economic Event

Economic Resource stock-flow

outflow

Economic Event stock-flow

inflow

“Each economic resource must participate in at least one inflow association and must participate in at least one outflow association”

Economic Event

Economic Event duality

“Each economic event must be connected to another economic event, which affect resources in the opposite way, by means of a duality association.”


Operational Business Rules in terms of REA-EO Semantics(Gailly and Geerts, 2012)

Economic Event

Economic Resource stock-flow

outflow

Economic Event stock-flow

inflow

“The participation of an Economic Resource instance in a stock-flow outflow association must be preceded by the participation of the same instance in a stock-flow inflow association”

<<Economic Event>>

Sale

<<Economic Resource>>

Product <<Sfo>>with

<< Economic Event>>

Purchase <<Sfi>>with

“A specific product can’t be sold if it hasn’t been acquired (purchased) yet”

1) Should we refine the REA-EO semantics? What problems can be solved by such refined semantics?

This Paper’s Research Question(s)

2) Are we able to discover some guidelines as part of the refinement

process (How)?

Overview of the Different Types of REA-EO Extensions

I. Three-Layer Architecture(Geerts and McCarthy 2001)

Payroll

Process

Cash

Acquisition

Process

Cash

LaborLabor

Maintenance

Process

Cash

LaborLabor

Car

Car

Revenue

Process

Cash

Used

Car

Used CarMaintained Car

Used Car

Maintained Car

Used Car

Give

Take

Exchange

Customer

Car Used Car

Car

Maintained

Car

Car

Labor

Used Car Cash

Accept Customer ContactAssess Customer Needs

Check Car File & Choose

Assess Insurance Options & CreditFill in Contract

Customer Pays

Find Car & Provide Keys

Return Car

Update Files

Check Out Car

Revenue

Labor Labor

Rental

RentalAgent

Customer

CashReceipt Cash

Cashier


II. More Complete Specification of Business Processes(Geerts and McCarthy 2000)

EconomicEvent

EconomicEvent

EconomicAgent

Commitment Commitment

stock-flow

{ inflow

outflow }

dual

participation

{accountability --

internal agent}

reciprocal

participation

reserves executes executes

EconomicResource

description (resource – external agent)

associationlinkage custody (resource – internal agent)

responsibility (internal – internal)

assignment (internal – external)

alliance (external – external)

ResourceEventAgent

Commitment

typification TypeImage

Extended REA Framework

(REA Enterprise Ontology)


III. REA-EO PRIMITIVE REFINEMENT(Geerts and McCarthy 2000; HRUBY 2006)

Stock-Flow

Inflow Outflow

Use ConsumptionGiveTake Production

EconomicResource

EconomicEvent

EconomicResource

EconomicEvent

Give

Take

Duality

EconomicResource

EconomicResource

EconomicEvent

EconomicEvent

EconomicEvent

Use

Consumption

Duality Production

Market Exchange Conversion Exchange

Finished Good

Sale

CashCash

Receipt

Give

Take

Duality

Market Exchange

Machine

Ingredients

Production Steps

Manufacturing Process

EconomicEvent

Use

Consumption

Duality Production

Conversion Exchange

DSRM Activities

Problem Identification and Motivation

Define the Objectives of a Solution

Design and Development

Demonstration

Evaluation

Communication

Activity Description

Refined semantics should result in more and improved operational rules

1) Stock-Flow Networks2) Refined Specification (Taxonomy) of Stock-Flow

Semantics3) Ontology-Based Operational Rules

4) Refinement Process

Application of refined semantics and operational rules to a number of business scenarios

To what extent are the extended semantics and the associated operational rules applicable.

Present the ideas and results to academics and managers.

Knowledge Base

Literature Review.Practice: Problems solved by using

semantics.

Literature Review.Full understanding of current REA-EO primitives and the business practices,

modeling rules, and instance rules they can support.

Scenario-driven ontological engineering.Economic and Accounting Theory.

Business Process AnalysisCase Study

Case Study

Knowledge of the disciplinary culture.

(A wide variety of) applications benefit from (extended) semantics. Identify additional problems

that can be solved by using semantics.

STOCK-FLOW NETWORKS

EconomicEvent

Inflow

Economic Resource

EconomicEvent

Outflow

EconomicEvent

EconomicEvent

EconomicEvent

EconomicEvent

Buy

Inflow

FixedAsset

Employ

Outflow

Sell

Dispose

Lease

Maintenance

Return

SaleVideo(CD)

THE “BUSINESS ENTITY” BUYS AND SELLS VIDEOS (CDs)

CashReceipt

Cash

GIVE

TAKE

DUALITY

BuyTAKE

CashDisbursement

GIVE

DUALITY

BUSINESS MODEL I

SaleVideo(CD)

CashReceipt

Cash

GIVE

TAKE

DUALITY

PurchaseTAKE

TAKE

Return

GIVECash

Disbursement

DUALITY

DUALITY

THE “BUSINESS ENTITY” BUYS AND SELLS VIDEOS (CDs)CUSTOMERS CAN RETURN VIDEOS THAT DON’T WORK AND GET THEIR MONEY BACK

BUSINESS MODEL II

1) DEPENDENCY EXISTS BETWEEN GIVE and TAKE-U-RETURN (BUSINESS MODELING)2) COMPLIES WITH THE “A GIVE REQUIRES A TAKE” OPERATIONAL RULE.3) OTHER (OPERATIONAL) RULES CAN BE DEFINED IN TERMS OF THE EXTENDED

SEMANTICS; SUCH AS:a) A TAKE-U-RETURN MUST BE PRECEDED BY A GIVE.b) A TAKE cannot be (immediately) followed by a TAKE-U-RETURN and vice versa.

THE “BUSINESS ENTITY” BUYS AND SELLS VIDEOS (CDs)CUSTOMERS CAN RETURN VIDEOS THAT DON’T WORK AND GET THEIR MONEY BACK

SaleVideo(CD)

GIVEPurchase

TAKE

TAKE-U-RETURN

Return

BUSINESS MODEL IIWith REFINED SEMANTICS

SaleVideo(CD)

GIVEPurchase

TAKE

Return RentGIVE-BORROWTAKE-W-RETURN

CashReceipt

DUALITY

DUALITY

THE “BUSINESS ENTITY” NOW DECIDES TO BOTH SELL AND RENT CDs

BUSINESS MODEL IIIWith REFINED SEMANTICS

1) DEPENDENCIES EXIST BETWEEN GIVE/TAKE and GIVE-BORROW/TAKE-W-RETURN (BUSINESS MODELING)2) OTHER (OPERATIONAL) RULES CAN BE DEFINED IN TERMS OF THE EXTENDED SEMANTICS; SUCH AS:

a) Participation in a TAKE-W-RETURN association must be preceded by participation in a GIVE-BORROW.

b) Participation in a GIVE association cannot be followed by participation in a TAKE-W-RETURN association

Stock-Flow

Inflow Outflow

Use ConsumptionGiveTake Production

Take-Return

Take-U-Return

Take-W-Return

Give-Return

Give-U-Return

Give-W-Return

Take-Borrow Give-Borrow

REFINED TAXONOMIC DEFINITION OF THE STOCK-FLOW ASSOCIATION

CONCLUSIONS

Semantically Refined Stock-Flow Associations1) Enable to express more complex “business modeling” dependencies

2) Enable to define more advanced operational rules

FUTURE RESEARCH

1) Work-In-Progress2) Define full-blown stock-flow association taxonomy

3) Define additional instance and (business) modeling rules4) Investigate stereotypical “Work-Flow” patterns for the different

stock-flow associations5) Generalize the REFINEMENT PROCESS

6) Evaluation of the artifacts

Questions?

Stock-Flow

Semantics

Reasoning

Semantic Reasoning with Refined REA-EO Primitives

Business

Transcript of Semantic Reasoning with Refined REA-EO Primitives