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An ontology-supported transaction formalism protocol in infrastructure management

University of British Columbia

Infrastructure organizations use diversified information systems to exchange data (transaction). Presently, data exchange in the area of infrastructure management is accomplished in a manual and ad hoc basis. The growing trend is to transform these manual data exchanges to a computer-to-computer based transactions. The core research questions include: What transactions are candidates to formalize?—this question is dealt with identifying and selecting a potential transaction for IT improvement—Asset Inventory and Condition Assessment Reporting/Tangible Capital Asset (AI&CAR/TCA) Reporting. Why formalize transactions?”—this question is dealt with developing and applying an Infrastructure Management—Process Maturity Model to assess the degree to which work processes and communications are formalized in infrastructure management. The results indicate that the work processes and communications are currently performed on an ad hoc basis. How to formalize and manage transactions?— this question is dealt with developing and applying an ontology-supported Transaction Formalism Protocol (TFP), which is composed of two parts: ontology and protocol. Two ontologies, the Transaction Domain Ontology and Tangible Capital Asset ontology, were developed to represent transaction domain knowledge and Tangible Capital Asset knowledge respectively to support the design, management, and implementation of transactions in infrastructure management. Moreover, an eight-step procedure—the TFP was developed from two perspectives: The TFP Specification modeled each step of the protocol as a function for which inputs, controls, mechanisms, tools/techniques, and outputs were defined, whereas the TFP Tool includes a set of forms and guidance developed for specific steps of the protocol. The proposed TFP was applied to develop transaction specification for the AI&CAR/TCA Reporting, which was managed and implemented through developing the Infrastructure Transaction Management Portal and Asset Information Integrator System repectively. The evaluation results indicate that both the ontologies are consistent, concise, complete, correct, and clear. Similarly, the protocol was found to be feasible, usable, useful, and generic. The major contributions include the development of two ontologies and protocol, whereas the medium contributions are: IT use survey, development of the IM-PMM, portal, and asset integrator information system. The minor contribution; however, includes the development of the transaction specification for the AI&CAR/TCA Reporting.

Text

2014-11-07

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/50997

Civil Engineering

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/