November 27, 2008

Software ‘interoperability’ key to efficient business processes

Construction Corner

Korky Koroluk

One of the problems that has plagued people since the computerization of businesses began has been interoperability.

Computers that “won’t talk to each other” are annoying, wasteful and not a lot of use. That’s why interoperability has become something of a Holy Grail for the software industry.

The International Standards Organization (ISO) defines interoperability as the “capability to communicate, execute programs, or transfer data among various functional units in a manner that requires the user to have little or no knowledge of the unique characteristics of those units.”

Put that into plain language: All of the software used on the project should work together, and making it work together should be easy.

For most of us, right now, it’s not easy. That’s why so many of us find ourselves using time-consuming workarounds. That’s why interoperability has been an important focus for Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

If you are comfortable enough with computer science, you might want to read some of the work the SEI is doing. You’ll find them at www.sei.cmu.edu

Others have also been active, of course, including Bentley Systems Inc., the big American outfit that develops and sells software applications for engineers, architects, GIS professionals and builders working on infrastructure projects.

Their products aren’t aimed at the small operators. But if you’re building bigger stuff — bridges, wastewater management facilities, roads and highways, airports, power stations and the like — you almost certainly know Bentley.

The company has spent a lot of time and money on interoperability, and A. B. (Buddy) Cleveland, who heads the company’s applied research group, has published an informative white paper that details the approach they have taken.

Although it deals in detail only with the approach Bentley has chosen to use, it is easier to understand than anything on the SEI website.

Cleveland and his team elected to develop a central platform that would provide interoperability at every stage of a project — from concept to design, construction, operation, updating, and, finally, decommissioning.

In the process, they recognized that each project has its inherent uniqueness which requires unique approaches, so they needed a package flexible enough to be used on any kind of infrastructure project anywhere.

Theirs is a system that embraces existing software applications through an array of off-the-shelf connectors. Software tool kits enable the creation of new connectors for additional information sources that may become available, but each source needs only a single connector, regardless of the number of other applications that are connected to the operating environment.

It makes file sharing easy, no matter what file formats are used. And the information in those files is the key, Cleveland writes because “projects succeed or fail on how effectively information is created, shared, applied and distributed.”

“If you accept this premise, then the obvious conclusion to draw is that information technology plays a central role in successfully executing infrastructure projects.”

The present global economic turmoil has companies trying to save money. And I’ve read a number of disturbing articles saying that some are looking at their IT spending as a possible target.

That’s worrying, because IT is more important than ever to companies trying to do be more efficient.

So, even if you’re not a part of Bentley’s target market, you might want to read Cleveland’s white paper, because interoperability is going to become more and more important.

Korky Koroluk is an Ottawa-based freelance writer. Send comments to editor@dailycommercialnews.com

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