ONTORULE's first presentation at CASCON'11

1. ONTORULE
From business knowledge to
ontology- and rule-based
applications

2. Workshop agenda
8:30 Introduction to the ONTORULE project
9:10 The ONTORULE standard-based architecture
9:30 Hands-on labs
1) acquiring ontology and rules from text
10:30 Coffee break
11:00 Hands-on labs
2) Annotating and indexing ontologies and rules
11:30 Hands-on labs
3) Authoring and executing business rules grounded in
ontology

3. The ONTORULE project
Ch. de Sainte Marie
IBM

4. Developing a business rule app (today)
IT application verbalize
developper + Business design Business
Business user
vocabulary user
Business
BOM Rules
XOM
Execute
IT application
developer design Application

5. Developing a business rule app (today)
IT application verbalize
developper + Business design Business
Business user
vocabulary user
Business
BOM Rules
XOM
Execute
IT application
developer design Application

6. Developing a business rule app (today)
IT application verbalize
developper + Business design Business
Business user
vocabulary user
Business
BOM Rules
XOM
Execute
IT application
developer design Application

7. Developing a business rule app (today)
IT application verbalize
developper + Business design Business
Business user
vocabulary user
Business
BOM Rules
XOM
Execute
IT application
developer design Application

8. Developing a business rule app (today)
IT application verbalize
developper + Business design Business
Business user
vocabulary user
Business
BOM Rules
XOM
Execute
IT application
developer design Application

9. Developing a business rule app (today)
IT application verbalize
developper + Business design Business
Business user
vocabulary user
Business
BOM Rules
XOM
Execute
IT application
developer design Application

10. Developing a business rule app (today)
IT application verbalize
developper + Business design Business
Business user
vocabulary user
Business
BOM Rules
XOM
Execute
IT application
developer design Application

11. Developing a business rule app (today)
IT application verbalize
developper + Business design Business
Business user
vocabulary user
Business
BOM Rules
XOM
Execute
IT application
developer design Application

12. Developing a business rule app (today)
IT application verbalize
developper + Business design Business
Business user
vocabulary user
Business
BOM Rules
XOM
Execute
IT application
developer design Application

13. Developing a business rule app (today)
IT application verbalize
developper + Business design Business
Business user
vocabulary user
Business
BOM Rules
XOM
Execute
IT application
developer design Application

14. Developing a business rule app (today)
IT application verbalize
developper + Business design Business
Business user
vocabulary user
Business
BOM Rules
XOM
Execute
IT application
developer design Application

15. Business people...
• ... do not want to see or write this

17. Business people...
• ... do not want to see or work with this
• They are used
– to look up glossaries
– to apply regulations
– to design policies
– to write rules like
« Customer must be 18 or more to rent a car »
– to read decision tables

18. Glossary (from EU directive
77/541/EEC)

19. EU regulation (directive
77/541/EEC)

20. AA frequent flyer program

21. From the AAdvantage Web site

22. Business people want...
• To write (and read, and manage) policies and rules
using own or domain-specific language or lexicon
– Natural language, not logic
• Rules and policies communicated unambiguously
across organisation’s or constituency’s branches,
functions, domains
– Same concepts, same semantics, different lexica
• Rules and policies applied consistently accross
organisation or constituency
– Same rules, different applications

23. Same rule, different applications
• Operative rules may instantiate differently in
different applications
– Policy: « Customer must be 18 or more to rent a car
»
– Decision: Can this customer rent a car?
If this customer is 18 or more
then proceed with rental
– Decision: What shall I do to rent a car?
If (today – birth) < 18 years
then wait ((birth + 18 years) – today)
years

24. Business people want...
• To write policies and rules using own or domain-specific
language or lexicon
– Natural language, not logic
• Rules and policies communicated unambiguously across
organisation’s or constituency’s branches, functions, domains
– Same concepts, same semantics, different lexica
• Rules and policies applied consistently accross organisation or
constituency
– Same rules, different applications
• ...and implemented as intended in decision-support IT
applications
• But rule engines need formal semantics and data models
– Not natural languages and lexica

25. How to reconcile them?
• Formalize vocabularies as ontologies
– re-use accross application or implementation
– Map to multiple data models
– Attach to multiple lexica
• Ground natural language policies and rules in formalized
vocabulary
– Formalize the additional semantics separately from the ontology
• Operationalize in rule-based IT application
– Translate formalized rules and policies into (possibly application
specific) implementation-specific executable rules
– Translate ontology into implementation-specific data model...
– ...or ground executable rules into ontology

26. Additional benefits
 Separate (conceptual) domain knowledge from
(operational) business rules...
 Separate domain knowledge from implementation
dependent data model...
 Separate wide ranging policies from application
specific operational rules
 ...that all have
 Different lifecycles
 Different scope (re-use etc)
 Different owners
 Improving collaboration and quality
 Design
 Interchange, sharing, re-use, re-deployment (on different
platforms)
 Maintenance, evolution

27. ONTORULE vision
Other applications and other platforms
Ontologies
Terminologies IT developer Application
Vocabulary Rule
Biz OWL
+ engine
user Ontology
Business
Rules RIF
Business Business
user user
: Automatic
Other applications Other platforms
: Semi-automatic
: Manual

28. Project ONTORULE: fact sheet
 3 years Integrating Project funded by the European Commission
 FP7, ICT call 3, theme 4.2
 Current status: operation
 Grant agreement: FP7 231875
 Started: 1 January 2009
 Duration: 36 months
 Overall budget: >8 M€
 Max. funding: 5,4 M€
 Effort: 644 person.months (~18 FTE)
 Consortium
 Vendors: IBM (ILOG) + Ontoprise
 SBVR consultants: PNA (+ John Hall)
 Use cases: Arcelor Mittal + Audi
 Technology center: CTIC
 Academics: TU Vienna + FU. Bozen/Bolzano + U. Paris 13
 Coordinator: Christian de Sainte Marie (IBM)

29. Key objectives and innovation
 Acquisition of ontology and rules from text
 Management of heterogeneous knowledge
 Combination of rules and ontologies at run-time
 Standard based integration
 End-to-end pilot applications
www.ontorule-project.eu

30. ONTORULE demonstrators
Acquisition Maintenance Execution
ORM to OWL
SBVR translation Production Production
Verification (FUB) Rule + OWL Rule + OWL
Simulation maintenance execution
(PNA) (IBM) RIF + OWL (IBM)
documentation
(CTIC)
NLP ObjectLogic ObjectLogic
Knowledge Luis + OWL + OWL
Acquisition maintenance execution
Alice
(U. Paris 13) (ontoprise) Marc Gary (ontoprise)
Marc Gary Gary
Alice Joana
Users of ONTORULE User of the decision-
support application that is
supported by ONTORULE

31. Workshop agenda
8:30 Introduction to the ONTORULE project
9:10 The ONTORULE standard-based architecture
9:30 Hands-on labs
1) acquiring ontology and rules from text
10:30 Coffee break
11:00 Hands-on labs
2) Authoring and executing business rules grounded in
ontology
12:00 Hands-on labs
3) Annotating and indexing ontologies and rules