achieving justice information interoperability

United StatesDepartment of Justice

www.it.ojp.gov/globalwww.it.ojp.gov/global

Achieving Justice Information Interoperability

The Justice Reference Architecture: A Global Project



What the JRA is• Based on Service orientation• Based on open standards• Supports implementation interoperability• Supports state and local justice agency exchanges• Partnership of government practitioners and industry

vendors



The Usual Business Justifications• Do it quicker.• Do it cheaper.• Do it better.• Increase business flexibility



Motivations to Share Information• Core justice business needs (ongoing)• Terrorist attacks—September 11, 2001• Natural disasters—Hurricane Katrina (2005)• Pandemics—Avian Flu (????)• What next???

• It is hard to predict future information sharing needs, so flexibility is critical



Barriers to Interoperability (1)• It is very difficult to even hold a conversation about

interoperability unless there is a common vocabulary for reference architectures

• The OASIS SOA Reference Model (SOA RM)—a choice rapidly gaining traction in the vendor community

• Tested the SOA RM concepts with several other domains and expanded it as a conceptual reference architecture.

United StatesDepartment of JusticeThe Moving Parts



Barriers to Interoperability (2)• Information Model Issues

– Data and document models (concepts, definitions, schema)– Document model (domain model, schema)

• Service Model Issues– Core (enterprise) or shared– Line of business– Individual agency



Barriers to Interoperability (3)• Services Issues (consistent definitions and interfaces)• Repository Issues

– Standards-based interfaces– Support for federation– Standard metadata for types of services

• Service Interaction Requirement (messaging) Issues– Consistent requirements across service interaction profiles

(security, privacy, etc.)– Consistent requirements by service



Barriers to Interoperability (4)• Service Interaction Profile (messaging) Issues

– Standards-based profiles– Compatible profiles

• Special Service (intermediary) Issues– Routing and orchestration– Transformations– Validation



Barriers to Interoperability (5)• Policy/Agreement/Contract Issues

– Consistent business rules (privacy, security, etc.)– Consistent service level agreements

• Governance Issues– Agreement on reference standards– Process for maintenance and versions

• Execution Context (implementation) Issues– Network roll-ups, simplified business rules, etc.



What is Needed?• Something complementary to both the federal, NASCIO,

and agency enterprise architectures• An implementation reference architecture for information

sharing– Partly generic standards for information sharing– Partly standards specific to a domain



The Modular Pieces• Information Model

– Interchangeable vocabularies (GJXDM, EDXL > NIEM) and reference exchange schemas

– Composable components to create new exchange schemas quickly and easily

• Service Interaction Profiles (messaging)– Interchangeable profiles like Web services, MQ, wireless, etc.– Composable micro-services to create new services quickly and

easily



The Generic Solutions• A Reference Model

– Provides a common language to talk about different implementation architectures (the concept of a kitchen)

• A Conceptual Reference Architecture– Provides common concepts for mapping across different

implementation architectures (a generic kitchen)• A Domain Reference Architecture

– Provides an actual set of implementation standards that enables interoperability (a specific kitchen design)



What Is Reusable Across Domains?• Information Model

– Core components like name and address (NIEM)• Service Interaction Requirements (messaging)

– Some requirements definitions• Service Interaction Profiles (messaging)

– Some profiles (at least partially)– Some specific technical solutions—Web services, MQ,

wireless (maybe)



What Needs to Behave Nicely?• Repositories (federation, shared architectural components

—data, services, etc.)• Identification Mechanisms (compatible security, access)• Security and Privacy (business rules, security controls,

role codes, and data category)



Hot off the Press• JRA specification 1.0 out very soon.• First service interaction profiles in 0.7 draft (web services,

JMS, ebXML, MQ Series, first wireless).• Formal efforts to coordinate with DOJ architecture

(LEISP, NIEM, etc.).• Encouraging conversations with DHS and DNI (ISE).• Initial conversations with HealthIT, EPA, and others.

achieving justice information interoperability

Documents