It was originally developed as a method for mining ontologies from multiple legacy systems – as the first stage in an architectural transformation [1] or software modernization.
It is the analysis method used in the development and maintenance of the U.S. Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF) Meta Model (DM2), where a data modeling working group of over 350 members was able to systematically resolve a broad spectrum of knowledge representation issues.
The approach was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by a team of KPMG consultants led by Chris Partridge.
The team was working on a complex legacy systems re-engineering project and needed a new approach.
Using this top ontology as a basis, a systematic process for re-engineering legacy systems was developed.
From a software engineering perspective, a key feature of this process was the identification of common general patterns, under which the legacy system was subsumed.
Much of the approach and the associated tools are proprietary, but some aspects have been delivered to the public domain and elements of it have appeared in a number of standards.
[2] The IDEAS (International Defence Enterprise Architecture Specification for exchange) standard is based upon BORO, which in turn was used to develop DODAF 2.0.
The BORO approach is designed to be a simple, repeatable process for developing formal ontologies.
More modern methods have introduced a semantic approach, where the analyst will tend to analyse the underlying senses of the word (meaning).
The method has been presented several times, including a tutorial at the Integrated Enterprise Architecture Conference in London in 2008.