Design patterns for description-driven systems in High Energy Physics Original Research Article

In data modeling, product information has most often been handled separately from process information. The integration of product and process models in a unified data model could provide the means by which information could be shared between High Energy Physics (HEP) groups throughout the system lifecycle from design through to production. Recently attempts have been made to integrate these two separate views of systems through identifying common data models. This paper relates description-driven systems to multi-layer architectures through the CRISTAL project and reveals where existing design patterns facilitate the integration of product and process models, where patterns are missing or require enrichment for integration. It reports on the construction of a so-called description-driven system which integrates Product Data Management (PDM) and Workflow Management (WfM) models through a common meta-model.