A key aspect of any data integration endeavor is establishing a transformation that translates instances of one or more source schemata into instances of a target schema. This schema integration task must be tackled regardless of the integration architecture or mapping formalism. In this paper we provide a task model for schema integration. We use this breakdown to motivate a workbench for schema integration in which multiple tools share a common knowledge repository.

In particular, the workbench facilitates the interoperation of research prototypes for schema matching (which automatically identify likely semantic correspondences) with commercial schema mapping tools (which help produce instance-level transformations). Currently, each of these tools provides its own ad hoc representation of schemata and mappings; combining these tools requires aligning these representations. The workbench provides a common representation so that these tools can more rapidly be combined.