Vendor Data Store Mappings

Project Proposal
Vendor Data Store Mappings Project

Contents:

Proposal

Executive Summary
Fact Sheet

Proposal in a downloadable MS Word file
Send in Your Suggestions about the Proposal
Register Your Interest in the Proposal
Summary of Member Comments

Executive Summary

There are a several large E&P software vendors that provide data stores to support their application suites. Although these vendors have plans to migrate their data stores to Epicentre in an effort to promote data exchange and application interoperability between vendors, that process will take time and will not be accomplished in one step.

In the interim, the industry still grapples with the problem of data exchange/migration from one type of vendor data store to another as evidenced by a number of existing or proposed data exchange/migration projects. Therefore, the Vendor Data Store Mappings project is being proposed to facilitate the exchange/migration of data between current vendor data stores and Epicentre. The overall objectives of the project are:

Build mappings to Epicentre for all subject domains found in popular vendor data models, e.g., OpenWorks, GeoFrame and Finder
For mapped subject domains, validate existing Epicentre usage patterns and identify new usage patterns where necessary
Develop changes and/or additions to POSC specifications to accommodate the storage of subject domains found in vendor models.

Phase I of the Vendor Data Store Mappings project has this specific goal:

In two parallel projects, map an initial set of subject domains to be determined by the project (possibly Well and Culture) from OpenWorks to Epicentre and from GeoFrame or Finder to Epicentre.

Phase I is expected to be followed in 1999 by two more phases to complete additional subject domain mappings for the same vendor data models

Fact Sheet

Project Sponsorship Terms

Announce intent to participate
Participation fee for Phase I is $50,000 per project sponsor
IPR belongs to POSC

Project Description

Overall Objectives:

Build mappings to Epicentre for all subject domains found in popular vendor data models, e.g., OpenWorks, GeoFrame and Finder
For mapped subject domains, validate existing Epicentre usage patterns and identify new usage patterns where necessary
Develop changes and/or additions to POSC specifications to accommodate the storage of subject domains found in vendor models.

Phase I Objectives:

In two parallel projects, map an initial set of subject domains to be determined by the project (possibly Well and Culture) from OpenWorks to Epicentre and from GeoFrame or Finder to Epicentre

Business Impact

A consistent set of model mappings from popular vendor models to Epicentre will facilitate the implementation of tools for exchange of data between these models and Epicentre. In addition, extensions will be made to Epicentre to cover the management of any data that is currently held in the vendor data models that is not accounted for in Epicentre, and many domain-specific Epicentre usage patterns will be documented and shared with industry. This effort will make it much easier for the industry to move to Epicentre and enjoy the benefits that standardization will bring.

Project Deliverables

Detailed mappings from popular vendor data models to Epicentre
Validation test results for all mappings
New documented usage patterns for Epicentre
Extensions to Epicentre.

Impact on Current POSC Specifications

The current POSC specifications define and support most of the subject domain material found in the popular vendor data models. However, there are likely to be missing elements in Epicentre that will need to be added to completely map any vendor data model to Epicentre.
Currently, as part of a model version migration project, POSC is defining a formal mapping language capable of explicitly mapping data in one model to another in a sufficiently rigorous manner such that a resulting mapping can be used to create a data migration execution engine. That same language would be used to document the mappings for the Vendor Data Store Mappings project, and, as a consequence, it would necessarily be refined and published as a new POSC specification.

Impact on Future POSC Maintenance

To the degree that POSC specifications are added to or refined to achieve the mappings from the vendor models to Epicentre, these specifications will require maintenance in the future along with all other current POSC specifications. The mappings and usage patterns themselves will require future updating as vendor models evolve

Role of POSC

POSC will serve as project manager of this project. It will conduct this project using the POSC Open Process to ensure completeness and fairness in the development of new and revised industry standards, specifications, and ancillary products. POSC employees will perform technical work supplemented by the active participation of member organizations. Member participants will contribute to technical reviews, member and industry presentations, technical workshops, intense working groups, etc.

Duration / Phases

Phase I of this project covers the initial mapping of a core set of subject domains. It would begin on June 1, 1998 and end by December 31, 1998.

It is envisioned there would be at least two follow-on projects in 1999, each being six months in duration and covering subject domains specified by the project.

Target Budget

The estimated POSC effort is 2 man-years for each vendor data store/subject domain to be mapped. Phase I would consume a total of 4 man-years effort. Including validation testing, the Phase I estimated cost is $500,000 for manpower and expenses.

Phases II and III are estimated to cost a total of $1,000,000 in 1999.

Project Support

There is strong support from at least one major oil company for this project and one vendor. There are a number of data exchange/data migration projects in the industry either currently underway or being contemplated that could greatly benefit from the results of this project. In addition, the resulting subject domain usage patterns will be of general interest to all POSC specification users.

Benefits

Will help vendor application developers understand how to migrate their data stores to Epicentre
Will significantly increase the number of usage convention descriptions, thereby helping achieve application interoperability
Will dramatically reduce the amount of effort required for data bridge builders to build links between vendor and Epicentre data stores. Typically, data mapping is 1/3 the cost of traditional data bridge development and 2/3 the cost of an automated (i.e. code generated) solution.
Will provide a standard means of mapping vendor data stores to Epicentre
For those using Epicentre as a corporate/regional data store and vendor data stores as project data stores, provides an important element required to construct this architecture
Will result in Epicentre being enhanced so that it is capable of holding all of the data in the mapped vendor data stores
Timely publication of workable standards and specifications for interoperability. It is very likely that sponsoring organizations will invest further in this work by being active in member workshops, working meetings, evaluation teams, and by investing in commercial projects to develop software solutions based on this work.
Work will follow the POSC open process, ensuring that decisions consider input from both the POSC community and the industry at-large. The full membership should be able to benefit from the interoperability standards and specifications.

Future Considerations

The standards and specifications developed and published from this work will become part of the overall POSC support and maintenance workload.
In addition to the two follow-on projects mentioned in the Duration/Phases section above, additional follow-on projects will likely be necessary to completely cover the entire scope of the selected vendor data models. Also, including additional vendor models would require additional projects phases.

Register Your Interest

After reviewing the proposal document, you are encouraged to register your interest in the project in one or more of the following categories:

Interested in being a project proponent
Interested in being a project sponsor
Interested in being a project participant
Interested in monitoring the project to a successful completion

Summary of Member Comments

No comments have been received as yet.

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Updated: June 30, 1998. Send questions and comments to webmaster@posc.org