Design patterns for description-driven systems in High Energy Physics

In data modeling, product information has most often been handled separatel y from process information. The integration of product and process models i n a unified data model could Provide the means by which information could b e shared between High Energy Physics (HEP) groups throughout the system lif ecycle 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 p atterns are missing or require enrichment for integration. It reports on th e construction of a so-called description-driven system which integrates Pr oduct Data Management (PDM) and Workflow Management (WfM) models through a common meta-model. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.