Many thanks to Len Silverston and Paul Agnew for their participation in yesterday's seminar, Universal Patterns: How They Can Help You Develop Your HR Data Model. A screencast of the webinar is in production, but in the mean time, you can browse and download the slides that were presented using the embed below.

A well-conceived data model is a necessary foundation for any service oriented architecture (SOA). Architects looking for proven data model templates and best practices will find few resources more valuable than the The Data Model Resource Book series. In the recently published third volume (Universal Patterns for Data Modeling), data modeling experts Len Silverston and Paul Agnew, examine the recurring patterns that are essential for architects to understand in building and maintaining enterprise data models.

In this month's Webinar, we are fortunate to have Len and Paul join us to review their latest book and comment on the applicability of "universal patterns" to human resource data models.

My copy of Todd Biske's new book, SOA Governance, arrived today. It is mainly well done. Before you order you should know that this is much more in the genre of a management book than a technical reference. Much of the book uses a narrative about a SOA implementation at a fictional company, Advasco, as a device to explore SOA implementation and governance issues. The book isn't likely to solve all your SOA challenges, but it is useful and an easy read. Among the material that is particularly valuable are the role/position descriptions for a SOA team in chapter 8.

While I'm generally positive about the book, I do have a few issues it. As you might expect, there is a division in the book between "design-time" SOA governance and "run-time" governance. While Biske talks a bit about "design-time checkpoints," he only really talks about testing and measurement as a post-launch, run-time task. For example, Biske writes "the final process associated with SOA governance is that of measurement and improvement". I think something that is missing is a specific mention or any emphasis of the role of iteration and testing during design time. For example, if you read through the section on developing a "canonical model," it sounds more like a classic "waterfall" approach that is highly dependent on accomplishing the correct upfront research and the right agreement among stakeholders ("Consult all potential service consumers," etc.). My own advice would be for SOA implementers to expect model development (perhaps the most important "design time" activity) to be highly iterative and to be test-driven as much as possible.

I've written in the past about HR-XML 3.0's potential as a common information model. But what if you aren't really so interested in a "component library," as much as you are interested in just few key interfaces with trading partner -- for example, an HR-XML-based interface for accepting assessment or screening orders. Don't worry - we'll make it easy for you to do this by publishing "packages" of assets drawn from the broader library just for these types of integration requirements.

"Packages," as I'm using the term, combine several schemas into a single flattened schema. Packages were prepared in contemplation of common or typical services implementers need to support. Each package contains an example Web Services Description Language (WSDL) file that may be used as a starting point for deploying related services.

From this page, you can browse and download individual DRAFT packages or download the distribution file that includes all of them. Links to related documentation are provided. If you are not yet familiar with OAGIS Business Object Documents (BODs), spending some time reviewing the documentation on OAGIS data management would be wise. Note that a feedback form is available at the bottom of each page of documentation, so don't hesitate to let us know what works, what doesn't, and what is missing.