5 Asset Types and Taxonomies

This chapter describes asset types, harvested assets, taxonomies, and categorization.

This chapter contains the following sections:

• Section 5.1, "Overview of Assets and Asset Types"

• Section 5.1.1, "Asset Types"

• Section 5.1.2, "Harvested Assets"

• Section 5.1.3, "Categorizations"

5.1 Overview of Assets and Asset Types

The term asset refers to anything stored in Oracle Enterprise Repository. This can include, but is not limited to, business processes, services, patterns, frameworks, applications, components, and data services. Different asset types include:

• Service-related assets

• Process assets

• Knowledge assets

• Governance assets

• Policies and policy intent

Not all assets are code. An asset can be a process, the IT roadmap, or any number of documents. Flexible asset types support the following:

• Enterprise application integration

• Service-oriented architecture

• Component-based development

• Architecture, standards, and best practices deployment

5.1.1 Asset Types

Oracle Enterprise Repository can model any asset type. The Type Manager is a user-friendly tool for modifying the solution pack asset types and defining new ones. The Type Manager provides many element and display types, which you can arrange in a way that makes sense for an Asset Consumer or an Asset Producer or Provider.

5.1.1.1 Asset Type Best Practices

Users assigned to the Registrar Administrator role in Oracle Enterprise Repository can create new asset types, modify asset type metadata, create new categories and new tabs, and add any number of new elements to each tab.

The following are best practices for modifying asset types to meet stakeholder needs.

• Retain a copy of the original metadata

  • Make copy of the original asset type.

  • Rename the copy by adding a prefix of z and make the copy inactive.

  • Make desired changes to the original.

  Note:

  This is especially important if you are automatically harvesting assets. Oracle Enterprise Repository harvests the assets into a pre-defined model. The model leverages the Unique Identifiers associated with the out-of-the-box asset types. The harvester does not populate copies of the original assets, because those copies have a different Unique Identifier.

• When working with stakeholders, use templates to identify metadata fields needed for each asset. Stakeholders more easily identify metadata fields when looking at a list. After stakeholders have identified the metadata for each asset, you can develop a prototype in Oracle Enterprise Repository, which stakeholders can validate.

  • Out-of-the-box metadata for each Oracle Enterprise Repository asset type is listed at: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/repository/overview/asset.xls

    Use this as a template for identifying the metadata needed by stakeholders identified in Chapter 4, "Stakeholders".

• Oracle Enterprise Repository offers two views of asset metadata. The Viewer shows the metadata to which all users have read-only access. The Editor is a template-based view available to those who are entering or editing asset information. Organize metadata in the Editor so it is easy for those entering or editing asset information to know which metadata fields to populate.

  • The Editor can have multiple, customizable tabs. We recommend organizing these tabs by user role, so users can quickly identify the asset metadata they need to provide.

  • As an alternative, you can organize tabs according to SDLC state. This clarifies the metadata needed at each stage of the asset's lifecycle.

  • Note that Oracle Enterprise Repository's automated workflows use the Tabs to process assets. Maintaining consistency across asset types results in consistent processing by workflows.

5.1.2 Harvested Assets

Oracle Enterprise Repository harvests assets according to an underlying model. For example, Oracle Enterprise Repository harvests a JDeveloper 11g project into an underlying composite asset model. The model determines which assets appear in Oracle Enterprise Repository and the relationships that appear between the assets. As discussed in Chapter 3, "Visibility", the harvested assets display the implementation details.

Figure 5-1 shows one of the composite assets that ships with SOA Suite. The diagram on the right represents the underlying model. When the composite is harvested, it is interpreted according to the underlying model. The results are displayed in Figure 5-2.

Figure 5-1 JDeveloper Composite and Resulting Oracle Enterprise Repository Composite Model

Figure 5-2 Composite Harvesting Results

The Solution Packs provide the underlying models that define how harvested assets are displayed in Oracle Enterprise Repository. You can add metadata fields to the Base and solution pack asset types to support stakeholder information requirements.

5.1.3 Categorizations

Categorizations classify and or organize assets and projects within Oracle Enterprise Repository. They appear as asset metadata and provide robust searching capabilities. Both the Browse Tree searches and the Advanced Search capabilities in the Oracle Enterprise Repository Home page use them. Anything hierarchical or taxonomical can be a categorization. Examples include Architecture Reference Models, Asset Lifecycle Stages, Lines of Business, Domains, Business Capabilities, and so on.

Oracle Enterprise Repository ships with many categorizations. These can be customized to reflect concepts relevant to your organization.

• Think about how users search for assets, such as by line of business or technology.

• Think about how teams organize their assets, such as by lifecycle stage or business domain.

For more information about customizing taxonomies, see sections "Configuring Categorizations" and "Tab Elements" in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Enterprise Repository and "Configuring Oracle Enterprise Repository Categorizations in the UDDI Mappings File" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Configuration Guide for Oracle Enterprise Repository.