Formalisation and proposed extensions to a systems integration architecture (SIA)

The systems integration architecture (SIA) is being developed at the Automation & Robotics Research Institute (ARRI) to provide an information architecture which will support agility in all aspects of the enterprise. SIA provides integration of functions through management of interfaces between them. The architecture also provides automation of manufacturing/business processes whose management and execution is controlled by SIA's repository, called the Librarian. SIA operates on three modes of operation; 'application integration mode' provides the integration features to make a new application accessible through SIA; 'process definition mode' allows the user of SIA to define a process template; and 'process launching mode' provides execution and management of already defined processes. This thesis effort attempts to propose a mechanism for storing and executing these processes in a robust manner. The thesis provides a survey of existing frameworks and compares their features with those provided by SIA.