A MATURITY MODEL PROPOSAL
FOR
INTEROPERABILITY IN SYSTEMS: FROM
SINTATIC TO ORGANIZATIONAL
Maturity Models,
Interoperability,
MM design methodology
Interoperability is the ability of heterogeneous systems to communicate transparently and
can be achieved through levels, such as: (i) syntactic, (ii) semantic, (iii) pragmatic, and
(iv) organizational. However, there are several challenges for systems to provide interoperability
such as what requirements are necessary to achieve the desire interoperability.
Several proposals have been made to discuss aspects of a specific level of interoperability
or for a given domain. However, the interoperability of a system is an aspect that can
evolve throughout its life cycle, so support is needed to aid this process. Maturity models
can help in this case as they have been used in several domains to assess the maturity of
the system according to specific aspects (e.g, interoperability). This work presents AMortisse
(mAturity Model fOR inTeroperability In Software SystEms), a maturity model to
check interoperability in software systems towards the specification of a methodology for
maturity model definition. This methodology aims to aid the Maturity Model (MM) developers
by presenting a MM development life-cycle applicable for different domains. We aim
to systematize tasks involved in MM development, such as MM domain requirements,
organization of related concepts into levels, dimensions, and the path to maturity, therefore
leveraging the produced MM quality. Despite their popularity, maturity models
have been criticized due to lack of empirical validation and effective methods to aid in
their definition. A validation was performed by applying it to an organization's system to
attest Amortisse's ability to indicate the system's maturity. As a result, Amortisse was
able to measure the level of interoperability of the system and show which requirements
must be met to evolve between levels of maturity. The results of this investigation show
that the Amortisse and the methodology are feasible. We hope the presented methodology
provides clarity while obtaining this model and may help the development of new
maturity models in different domains. We hope that Amortisse will be able to show
systems interoperability level and indicate missing requirements.