Praxeme
Encyclopedia
Praxeme is a methodology for enterprise architecture
which provides a structured approach to the design and implementation of an enterprise information architecture
and which focuses on the enterprise as a system
.
” (action) and “semeion” (sense, meaning) – the initiative for an open method responds to the need for enterprises to share a reference method in order to successfully manage their transformation projects. In 2003, an investment from SAGEM
(Aeronautics & Defense department) enabled the foundations for the Praxeme method to be laid. The following year, the SMABTP (mutual insurance company in the building and public works sector) financed the design procedures required to overhaul its information system in Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). The method was further enriched with contributions from the French Army, the Caisses d'Allocations Familiales (Family Allowance offices) and the AXA
Group.
The French General Directorate for State Modernization (DGME) in its document "General Repository for Interoperability" , recommends using the Praxeme method for designing IT
systems in French public services.
Founded in 2006, the Praxeme Institute is a non-for-profit association pursuant to the French law of July 1, 1901. It is a depository for the Praxeme corpus and guarantor of its open nature (cf. the statutes of the association ). The Praxeme Institute maintains regular contact with the university and research communities. Its interdisciplinary approach aims at making contributions from the field of science more readily usable in the enterprise.
Praxeme follows in the footsteps of the methodological tradition of the last thirty years and takes up the legacies from Merise
, TACT, analyze-design methods, Zachman framework
... updating them in light of recent advances (SOA
, BPM
, ontology
, terminology...). It synthesizes these approaches and articulates them in accordance with the Model Driven Architecture (MDA) standard. Using the standard Unified Modeling Language
(UML), Praxeme's modeling techniques enable the “Enterprise System” to be rigorously defined. That is to say that the enterprise, in an effort of rationality, perceives itself to be a system. The notion of “Enterprise System” applies to enterprises and organizations, as well as any action system – organized and striving to achieve an aim. Praxeme has been used in contexts as varied as the insurance sector, drone
or weaponry systems, energy and distribution.
objects. In order to apprehend this complexity and master action, the method distinguishes several formally identified and defined aspects. This is the Merise
“levels of abstraction” or the Anglo-Saxon “separation of concerns
” principle. The Enterprise System Topology defines nine aspects, through which the documentation, decisions and projects of the enterprise are structured. As these aspects follow different rhythms and evolve differently, their separation enables us to reduce complexity and to optimize transformation efforts. For example, the technology life cycle is far shorter than that of “business” concepts.
... The geographic model decides on the choices that will enable the design and dimension of the infrastructure to be made (hardware aspect).
between these two universes. Here the architect designs the optimal structure of the system, with relative independence regarding technical choices. Praxeme proposes derivation rules which, when applied to the semantic and pragmatic models, enable us to deduce the logical services (as defined in an SOA approach). For the urbanization
of the information systems
, the logical aspect also offers the stable and formal description required to manage this policy in the long term.
examines the possibilities and constraints linked to the state-of-the-art technologies available. Besides the technical choices, it establishes the rules of implementation and transposition of the logical model
to the software. Praxeme attaches great importance to the “logical/technical negotiation” period and provides the means to reconcile these two very different, but equally necessary, expert opinions (those of the technical and logical architectures).
and software components. It is here that we can find the IT products, their documentation, test cases, configurations, etc. This aspect also deals with the issues arising from the integration of packages.
on the hardware architecture
. This is where the method deals with questions on deployment, synchronization, technical services (grid computing
, databases, virtualization
...).
The Enterprise System Topology articulates these aspects: it enables all the documentation to be sorted out and the rules of passage from one aspect to another to be defined. These rules are detailed in a metamodel.
Praxeme proposes procedures for each of these aspects.
license. Its works are ongoing, with the aim of covering the field of the methodology, delimited by the Pro3 (Pro Cube) schema:
The first dimension is structured as presented in the Enterprise System Topology above. The second includes elements of approaches at both an enterprise and project level. As well as modeling procedures, a test method, database design, forms... are part of the third dimension.
In order to continue this work and to offer a complete method to the market, the Praxeme Institute is building partnerships with other organizations, seeking to federate available energies (CESAMES and the Ecole Polytechnique, SEMIC.eu, Société française de terminologie, etc.).
Enterprise architecture
An enterprise architecture is a rigorous description of the structure of an enterprise, which comprises enterprise components , the externally visible properties of those components, and the relationships between them...
which provides a structured approach to the design and implementation of an enterprise information architecture
Information Architecture
Information architecture is the art of expressing a model or concept of information used in activities that require explicit details of complex systems. Among these activities are library systems, Content Management Systems, web development, user interactions, database development, programming,...
and which focuses on the enterprise as a system
System
System is a set of interacting or interdependent components forming an integrated whole....
.
History
Under the name “Praxeme” – a contraction of “praxisPraxis
Praxis is the putting of theory into practice. The term may refer to:* Christian theological praxis* Praxis , the practice of faith, especially worship* The Praxis School, a school of Marxist philosophy...
” (action) and “semeion” (sense, meaning) – the initiative for an open method responds to the need for enterprises to share a reference method in order to successfully manage their transformation projects. In 2003, an investment from SAGEM
SAGEM
SAGEM was a major French company involved in defence electronics, consumer electronics and communication systems.In 2005, Sagem merged with SNECMA to form SAFRAN...
(Aeronautics & Defense department) enabled the foundations for the Praxeme method to be laid. The following year, the SMABTP (mutual insurance company in the building and public works sector) financed the design procedures required to overhaul its information system in Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). The method was further enriched with contributions from the French Army, the Caisses d'Allocations Familiales (Family Allowance offices) and the AXA
AXA
AXA S.A. is a French global insurance group headquartered in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. AXA is a conglomerate of independently run businesses, operated according to the laws and regulations of many different countries. The AXA group of companies engage in life, health and other forms of...
Group.
The French General Directorate for State Modernization (DGME) in its document "General Repository for Interoperability" , recommends using the Praxeme method for designing IT
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
systems in French public services.
Founded in 2006, the Praxeme Institute is a non-for-profit association pursuant to the French law of July 1, 1901. It is a depository for the Praxeme corpus and guarantor of its open nature (cf. the statutes of the association ). The Praxeme Institute maintains regular contact with the university and research communities. Its interdisciplinary approach aims at making contributions from the field of science more readily usable in the enterprise.
Positioning of the method
Praxeme is an enterprise methodology which aims to embrace all aspects of the enterprise, from strategy to deployment. It contains design procedures for the information system and IT systems of the enterprise. It reconciles different modeling approaches. In particular, it proposes a semantic modeling technique which benefits from the object-oriented approach, to formalize the knowledge about the business fundamentals.Praxeme follows in the footsteps of the methodological tradition of the last thirty years and takes up the legacies from Merise
Merise
Merise is a general-purpose modeling methodology in the field of information systems development, software engineering and project management...
, TACT, analyze-design methods, Zachman framework
Zachman framework
The Zachman Framework is an Enterprise Architecture framework for enterprise architecture, which provides a formal and highly structured way of viewing and defining an enterprise...
... updating them in light of recent advances (SOA
Service-oriented architecture
In software engineering, a Service-Oriented Architecture is a set of principles and methodologies for designing and developing software in the form of interoperable services. These services are well-defined business functionalities that are built as software components that can be reused for...
, BPM
Business process modeling
Business Process Modeling in systems engineering is the activity of representing processes of an enterprise, so that the current process may be analyzed and improved. BPM is typically performed by business analysts and managers who are seeking to improve process efficiency and quality...
, ontology
Ontology
Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality as such, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations...
, terminology...). It synthesizes these approaches and articulates them in accordance with the Model Driven Architecture (MDA) standard. Using the standard Unified Modeling Language
Unified Modeling Language
Unified Modeling Language is a standardized general-purpose modeling language in the field of object-oriented software engineering. The standard is managed, and was created, by the Object Management Group...
(UML), Praxeme's modeling techniques enable the “Enterprise System” to be rigorously defined. That is to say that the enterprise, in an effort of rationality, perceives itself to be a system. The notion of “Enterprise System” applies to enterprises and organizations, as well as any action system – organized and striving to achieve an aim. Praxeme has been used in contexts as varied as the insurance sector, drone
Drone
-Nature:The male sex of social Hymenopterans, such as a* Drone * male wasp* male ant-Chemicals:An abbreviation referring to one of two psychoactive drugs:* Mephedrone* 4-Methoxymethcathinone, commonly known as methedrone-Vehicles:...
or weaponry systems, energy and distribution.
Content of the method
Praxeme plays on the double meaning of the word “enterprise”: human organization and action. In both cases, they are complexComplex systems
Complex systems present problems in mathematical modelling.The equations from which complex system models are developed generally derive from statistical physics, information theory and non-linear dynamics, and represent organized but unpredictable behaviors of systems of nature that are considered...
objects. In order to apprehend this complexity and master action, the method distinguishes several formally identified and defined aspects. This is the Merise
Merise
Merise is a general-purpose modeling methodology in the field of information systems development, software engineering and project management...
“levels of abstraction” or the Anglo-Saxon “separation of concerns
Separation of concerns
In computer science, separation of concerns is the process of separating a computer program into distinct features that overlap in functionality as little as possible. A concern is any piece of interest or focus in a program. Typically, concerns are synonymous with features or behaviors...
” principle. The Enterprise System Topology defines nine aspects, through which the documentation, decisions and projects of the enterprise are structured. As these aspects follow different rhythms and evolve differently, their separation enables us to reduce complexity and to optimize transformation efforts. For example, the technology life cycle is far shorter than that of “business” concepts.
Enterprise System Topology
The Enterprise System Topology which represents the methodological framework, distinguishes nine aspects:Political Aspect (also referred to as “teleonomic” or “scoping”)
This aspect gathers together all formulations upstream of the models: values, objectives (strategic concerns, aims and objectives of the enterprise), requirements and vocabulary.Semantic Aspect
This aspect isolates the business fundamentals, leaving to one side the organization and work habits. The semantic model describes the “business” objects from a threefold angle: information, action and transformation (state machines). These elements are represented by attributes and class operations as well as by state machines. The class is a category of representation that corresponds to both objects and concepts.Pragmatic Aspect
This aspect concerns itself with the actors, their role, the organization and the distribution of responsibilities in the processes. Praxeme recommends describing the elementary work situations as use cases, this form of representation providing the link with the IT design.Geographic Aspect
In this aspect, we concern ourselves with the localization of the means that the enterprise calls upon. We also look at issues like working from home, nomadic activities, service continuity, outsourcingOutsourcing
Outsourcing is the process of contracting a business function to someone else.-Overview:The term outsourcing is used inconsistently but usually involves the contracting out of a business function - commonly one previously performed in-house - to an external provider...
... The geographic model decides on the choices that will enable the design and dimension of the infrastructure to be made (hardware aspect).
Hardware Aspect
This refers to the infrastructure and logistics required for the activities of the enterprise. Here the IT workers will find the machines and networks that influence some of the technical choices made. Other logistical means for both day-to-day activity and crisis situations are also found in this aspect. The hardware architecture is determined, to a large extent, by the geography of the enterprise (notion of site).Logical Aspect
This is an intermediary aspect, bridging the gap between the “business” and IT views. As such, it ensures the decouplingDecoupling
The term "decoupling" is used in many different contexts.-Economic growth without environmental damage:In economic and environmental fields, decoupling is becoming increasingly used in the context of economic production and environmental quality. When used in this way, it refers to the ability of...
between these two universes. Here the architect designs the optimal structure of the system, with relative independence regarding technical choices. Praxeme proposes derivation rules which, when applied to the semantic and pragmatic models, enable us to deduce the logical services (as defined in an SOA approach). For the urbanization
Urbanization
Urbanization, urbanisation or urban drift is the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change. The United Nations projected that half of the world's population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008....
of the information systems
Information systems
Information Systems is an academic/professional discipline bridging the business field and the well-defined computer science field that is evolving toward a new scientific area of study...
, the logical aspect also offers the stable and formal description required to manage this policy in the long term.
Technical Aspect
This aspect gathers the concerns the designers in charge of the realization of logical components may have, that is to say their translation into software. Technical architectureTechnical architecture
Technical architecture is one of several architecture domains that form the pillars of an enterprise architecture or solution architecture. It describes the structure and behaviour of the technology infrastructure of an enterprise, solution or system...
examines the possibilities and constraints linked to the state-of-the-art technologies available. Besides the technical choices, it establishes the rules of implementation and transposition of the logical model
Logical model
Logical model can refer to:* A model in logic, see model theory* In computer science a logical data model...
to the software. Praxeme attaches great importance to the “logical/technical negotiation” period and provides the means to reconcile these two very different, but equally necessary, expert opinions (those of the technical and logical architectures).
Software Aspect
This aspect is that of IT programsComputer program
A computer program is a sequence of instructions written to perform a specified task with a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute...
and software components. It is here that we can find the IT products, their documentation, test cases, configurations, etc. This aspect also deals with the issues arising from the integration of packages.
Physical Aspect
The culmination of the transformation chain, the physical architecture results from the projection of the software architectureSoftware architecture
The software architecture of a system is the set of structures needed to reason about the system, which comprise software elements, relations among them, and properties of both...
on the hardware architecture
Hardware architecture
In engineering, hardware architecture refers to the identification of a system's physical components and their interrelationships. This description, often called a hardware design model, allows hardware designers to understand how their components fit into a system architecture and provides...
. This is where the method deals with questions on deployment, synchronization, technical services (grid computing
Grid computing
Grid computing is a term referring to the combination of computer resources from multiple administrative domains to reach a common goal. The grid can be thought of as a distributed system with non-interactive workloads that involve a large number of files...
, databases, virtualization
Hardware virtualization
Computer hardware virtualization is the virtualization of computers or operating systems. It hides the physical characteristics of a computing platform from users, instead showing another abstract computing platform...
...).
The Enterprise System Topology articulates these aspects: it enables all the documentation to be sorted out and the rules of passage from one aspect to another to be defined. These rules are detailed in a metamodel.
Praxeme proposes procedures for each of these aspects.
Project development
Praxeme is the result of an open initiative, based on the mutualization of investments. All its components are published, and may be freely accessed, under the Creative CommonsCreative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
license. Its works are ongoing, with the aim of covering the field of the methodology, delimited by the Pro3 (Pro Cube) schema:
- Products: something which is built or transformed (the enterprise, a processBusiness processA business process or business method is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks that produce a specific service or product for a particular customer or customers...
, software, a system of systems...); - Processes: how the people organize themselves collectively (governanceGovernanceGovernance is the act of governing. It relates to decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance. It consists of either a separate process or part of management or leadership processes...
, transformation process, development process, organization of competences...); - Procedures and methods: how people work (the procedures and methods at an individual level).
The first dimension is structured as presented in the Enterprise System Topology above. The second includes elements of approaches at both an enterprise and project level. As well as modeling procedures, a test method, database design, forms... are part of the third dimension.
In order to continue this work and to offer a complete method to the market, the Praxeme Institute is building partnerships with other organizations, seeking to federate available energies (CESAMES and the Ecole Polytechnique, SEMIC.eu, Société française de terminologie, etc.).
External links
- Praxeme Institute's Wiki
- CESAMES
- SEMIC.eu : European Commission
- CSDM talk (Complex Systems Design & Management 2010)