A language for interoperability modeling and prediction

Interoperability, defined as the satisfaction of a communication need between two or more actors, is a sought after quality for enterprises in today's competitive environment. For a decision maker, understanding the effects of a changing market place and understanding how to adapt to the new environment is essential. Sustainable interoperability is an approach where such dynamic environments are considered, including how to adapt to the new environments. This paper presents a modeling language for describing architectures from an interoperability perspective and a formalism for inferring the degree of interoperability from the architecture models, thus supporting sustainable interoperability.The interoperability language is expressed as a Unified Modeling Language, UML, class diagram specifying classes, attributes, and relationships relevant for interoperability modeling. The class diagram is also augmented with a set of statements in the Object Constraint Language, OCL, supporting automated interoperability prediction.