adapter
See Nexus adapter.
backend system
An IT-system that provides the functionality and/or data storage for one or more business capabilities.
business API
Business API consists of the exposed services of business entities.
The business API does not have its own storage and no or very little logic. The storage and logic is located in a back end system. The business API accesses the back end through their respective Nexus adapter.
The business API is developed and maintained by the Nexus integrators.
business capability
Business capabilities compose the capabilities your company needs to conduct your business, e.g. invoicing, customer register, warehouse management, etc.
Encouraging an organization to talk more about business capabilities and less about IT-systems is a core part of the Nexus Link method. This concept has been used for a long time by business developers. For more information, see this: capability management in business.
business entity
Business entities are entities that your organization handles and saves information about, e.g. Product, Invoice, Employee, Customer.
Organizations within the same industry usually use the same set of entities.
business event
A business event is information about an action. Examples are: an invoice has been paid, a customer's loyalty index has changed, a parcel has been sent.
These events are published by the capability that detects them. Other capabilities can subscribe to them and take appropriate actions upon recept.
This type of integration between capabilities is very powerful. The publisher and the subscribers don't need to know anything about each other.
capability
capability contract
The capability contract states what the organization expects from a back-end system for a specific business capability. This contract is one of the main tools to help the organization talk in business terms instead of IT terms.
The contract is owned by the Nexus integration team. The team establishes the contract, often in cooperation with domain experts.
digital platform
A digital platform runs and orchestrates all important business processes in the organization. In a well implemented platform, IT no longer supports business processes, IT is the process.
Digital Platform Trends in 2018: Evolution of Business Models:
[digital platforms] have allowed for the integration of core business functionalities with third parties and their platforms. This not only gives companies more operational agility, but also moves past the idea of short-term profitability. It provides a more holistic vision for long-term growth and value creation.
domain expert
A domain expert (subject matter expert) is an expert in a domain or subject.
See this Wikipedia article about subject matter experts.
loosely coupled systems
The main architectural principle for Nexus Link is loosely coupled systems . We try to really take that to the extreme, where no IT-system should be aware of the other IT-systems involved. This gives IT the freedom to add, change and remove an IT-system at will without disturbing any of the other IT-systems.
See this Wikipedia article about loose coupling.
Nexus adapter
A Nexus adapter is required to plug a back-end system into the Nexus Link digital platform. The adapter implements one or more capability contracts and hides all system specific details.
The adapter is implemented as a web service application. It provides a REST API that is called by the business API. The adapter normally has no own data storage and little or no business logic. It is responsible for making its back-end system fit into the organization's digital platform.
Whenever possible, the Nexus adapter should be owned and maintained by the part of the organization that is responsible for the back-end system. If necessary, the Nexus adapter can be maintained by the Nexus integration team.
Nexus Link ICC
ICC stands for Integration Competence Center, a term that is already common for teams with a similar work description.
The Nexus Link ICC is a team of people that are responsible for the digital platform.
They may:
- model business entities
- establish capability contracts
- develop the business API
Here is a separate article that describes their job in greater detail.
Nexus integration team
See Nexus Link ICC
Nexus integrator
A Nexus integrator is a member of the Nexus integration team.
REST
REST* (wikipedia) was chosen to have technology agnostic web service communication. Using REST the different parts of the digital platform can communicate with each other without leaking out information about the underlying technology. This is key to loosely coupled systems.
role based app
A role based app is a client that is targeting a specific role. It is aimed at providing support for that role. It will not provide a specific functionality to other roles.
Note : Here, the term "app" refers to any user interface driven application, not neccessarily a mobile app.