Interoperability Approach. The framework for enterprise interoperability described in EN ISO 11354-1 defines three different approaches to enterprise interoperability. These can also be applied to digital platform interoperability if the digital platforms are considered as heterogeneous enterprises. • Integrated Interoperability Approach: This approach defines a common data model or a common Application Programming Interface (API) and all the digital platforms in the ecosystem must adhere to it. • Unified Interoperability Approach: This approach defines a common, canonical data model at the ecosystem-level similar to the Integrated Interoperability Approach. However, in this approach, the common data model is defined at the meta-level and therefore it is a non-executable entity. • Federated Interoperability Approach: This approach does not prescribe a common data model at the ecosystem and the all the digital platforms in the ecosystem are free to define and use their own data models. Interoperability needs to be enabled on-demand, when required by a use case, through data model transformation. The platforms need to share an ontology to map between their data models to establish interoperability. The EFPFInterop ecosystem consists of heterogeneous digital platforms that are owned and managed by independent entities. Therefore, enforcing a common data model or API at the ecosystem-level is not feasible. Defining a common meta-model at the ecosystem-level is very difficult. With new tools, services and/or platforms joining the ecosystem, the administrator is burdened with updating the meta-model frequently, while also ensuring backwards compatibility with the already connected platforms. Therefore, Integrated and Unified Interoperability Approaches don’t scale well with the increasing number of connected tools, services and platforms in the ecosystem. In contrast, the Federated Interoperability Approach distributes the burden of establishing interoperability among the service consumers, when they want to consume a particular service, making it scalable with the rapid growth of the ecosystem. Therefore, EFPFInterop approach aligns closely with the Federated Interoperability Approach.
