Algebra for Enterprise Ontology: towards analysis and synthesis of enterprise models

Enterprise modeling methodologies have made enterprises more likely to be the object of systems engineering rather than craftsmanship. However, the current state of research in enterprise modeling methodologies lacks investigations of the mathematical background embedded in these methodologies. Abstract algebra, a broad subfield of mathematics, and the study of algebraic structures may provide interesting implications in both theory and practice. Therefore, this research gives an empirical challenge to establish an algebraic structure for one aspect model proposed in Design & Engineering Methodology for Organizations (DEMO), which is a major enterprise modeling methodology in the spotlight as a modeling principle to capture the skeleton of enterprises for developing enterprise information systems. The results show that the aspect model behaves well in the sense of algebraic operations and indeed constructs a Boolean algebra. This article also discusses comparisons with other modeling languages and suggests future work.     

Automatic business process analysis and simulation based on DEMO

Enterprise process modelling as a core area of the Enterprises Information Systems (EIS) research has long attracted theoreticians of new concepts, designers of artefacts, and practitioners of modelling. As a result a vast number of modelling methods have been generated. However, each method is challenging because they lack certain aspects. First, these methods view processes as a flowchart, undermining the deep (nested) structure of processes. Second, most of these methods are based on informal or semi-formal representation, failing direct model checking and formal analysis without further translations and mapping procedures. Finally, because the majority of these methods originated from a computing perspective, their focal point is control-flow rather than interaction of social actors. In reality, an enterprise is a complex socio-technical system that includes interaction of technical and social components. In this paper, we discuss an innovative method that will address some of these challenges and provide an improved tool for this purpose. We base our method on the field-proven DEMO theory and methodology, where emphasis is made on the interactions between social actors. The proposed method encompasses a set of graphical notations and constructs based on the Petri nets semantics that allows direct model analysis and simulation.     

Universal Enterprise Adaptive Object Model: A Semantic Web-Based Implementation of Organizational Self-Awareness

In this paper we present a novel conceptual model that systematizes the integrated management and adaptation of: (1) enterprise models, (2) their representations, (3) their underlying meta-models (i.e. their abstract syntax) and (4) the representation rules (i.e. concrete syntax for the respective models). All this for different modelling languages and also different versions of these languages. Thanks to our original use of the adaptive object model and type square patterns—normally applied in the context of software engineering, but here applied for enterprise engineering—we manage to provide a strong conceptual foundation for the development of software tools that allow a precise and coherent specification of models and their evolution and also of meta-models and their evolution. We also present a prototype of such a tool currently being developed to enable collaborative enterprise ontology model management using the Semantic MediaWiki as a base framework. This solution is solidly grounded on the theoretical foundations of organizational self-awareness and Ψ-theory of enterprise ontology and is a valuable contribution to facilitate general and distributed enterprise model management and also concrete and abstract syntax specification (i.e. the specification of a language's meta-model). This allows flexibility and ease of use in creation and adaptation of organizational models and also the use of semantic queries to detect and inform users on any violation of meta-model rules. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.