ontology-summit
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [ontology-summit] An example of the worth of ontology development

To: 'Ontology Summit 2011 discussion' <ontology-summit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: "Wisnosky, Dennis E OSD DCMO" <Dennis.Wisnosky@xxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2011 10:54:01 -0500
Message-id: <11E9C728569F31489A2A0C002F46F5D431D11F6FF2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Jack, et. el.  Totally believable story about best way.    (01)

Dennis E. Wisnosky
Department of Defense
Business Mission Area
Chief Architect and Chief Technical Officer
703-607-3440
C630-240-6910    (02)


-----Original Message-----
From: ontology-summit-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:ontology-summit-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jack Ring
Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011 10:24 PM
To: ontology-summit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ontology-summit] An example of the worth of ontology development    (03)

In the mid-1990's Tom Love's object technology practice was busy introducing 
Smalltalk-based software to the marketplace.
Two projects had been enjoined with major insurance companies. Both projects 
directly engaged Smalltalk class designers with insurance-domain specialists. 
Progress was slow on both projects even though both were staffed with 90 
percentile object technology practitioners. After six months a lot of 
refactoring had happened but only a sparse class library had been achieved.    (04)

A third customer signed up for which I became responsible. Instead of the 8-15 
Smalltalkers as on the first two projects there was only one senior and on 
fresh-out available for this third insurance project. Time to innovate. Instead 
of engaging in class library design Doug McDavid proposed that he discover what 
insurance people really talk about. After processing 200 or so documents 
ranging from Annual Reports to underwriter risk analyses he produced a stunning 
semantic map. Two more Smalltalkers showed up and in two months time we had a 
class library designed and reviewed that was "better" than either of the other 
two projects in their ninth month. 
The cost comparison was approximately $X for us and $11X for each of them.     (05)

I think this experience highlighted two factors. 
1) Because business activities entail lots of knowledge exchange and choice 
making the coherency of the persons' respective mental models is key to 
adequate, accurate and timely knowledge exchange and choice making. 
Accordingly, the main challenge in discovering a 'fit-for-purpose' ontology is 
overcoming the extant diversity of erroneous or conflicting mental models. A 
business sans common ontology is somewhat like a middle school orchestra 
playing Brahms --- Brahms loses. 
2) Application software is an executable model of a business activity. 
Particularly in object technology a class library is quite similar to an 
ontology of the respective business domain.  It was this premise that motivated 
the semantic mapping approach. Good thing we didn't have lots of Smalltalkers.    (06)

OBTW, I do not claim that our employer was pleased (they were billing man hours 
not class libraries). However, our customer was.    (07)

Jack Ring    (08)



_________________________________________________________________
Msg Archives: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontology-summit/   
Subscribe/Config: http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontology-summit/  
Unsubscribe: mailto:ontology-summit-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Community Files: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/work/OntologySummit2011/
Community Wiki: http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?OntologySummit2011  
Community Portal: http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/     (09)

Attachment: smime.p7s
Description: S/MIME cryptographic signature


_________________________________________________________________
Msg Archives: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontology-summit/   
Subscribe/Config: http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontology-summit/  
Unsubscribe: mailto:ontology-summit-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Community Files: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/work/OntologySummit2011/
Community Wiki: http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?OntologySummit2011  
Community Portal: http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/     (01)
<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
  • Re: [ontology-summit] An example of the worth of ontology development, Wisnosky, Dennis E OSD DCMO <=