A new paradigm for the continuous alignment of business and IT: Combining enterprise architecture modelling and enterprise ontology

Abstract

Highlights• We propose a new paradigm for next generation enterprise information systems for the continuous alignment of business and IT for the agile enterprise.• The metamodelling approach supports both human-interpretable enterprise architecture models and machineinterpretable enterprise ontologies.• Semantic lifting transforms metamodels for the enterprise architectures into machine-interpretable enterprise ontologies.• Semantic metamodels express the semantics of all modelling concepts by an ontology. The ontology is extended by a metamodel, which defines the notation and syntax of the graphical modelling language.• Examples of next generation enterprise information systems are described, which embed modelling tools and algorithms for model analysis, identification of adaptation needs, and risk assessment.Abstract-The paper deals with Next Generation Enterprise Information Systems in the context of Enterprise Engineering. The continuous alignment of business and IT in a rapidly changing environment is a grand challenge for today's enterprises. The ability to react timeously to continuous and unexpected change is called agility and is an essential quality of the modern enterprise. Being agile has consequences for the engineering of enterprises and enterprise information systems. We propose a new paradigm for next generation enterprise information systems, which shifts the development approach of model-driven engineering to continuous adaptation of the agile enterprise. We propose a metamodeling approach, which supports both humaninterpretable representations, i.e. graphical models, and machine-interpretable representations, namely enterprise ontologies. Furthermore, we describe next generation enterprise information systems, which embed modeling tools and algorithms for model analysis.Keywords-Enterprise Engineering, Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Ontology, Metamodeling Topic-Engineering the agile enterprise, embedding enterprise architecture and enterprise ontology into information systems 2

Conceptual modeling for the design of intelligent and emergent information systems

“…The meta-model approach consists of two main elements: 1) modeling technique, which has to identify a) modeling procedure and b) modeling language; and 2) modeling mechanisms which describe the underlying elements of how the model will be executed logically and mathematically. This approach has been used to develop interoperability framework for model-based enterprise engineering (Hinkelmann, et al, 2015).…”

A Modelling Environment for Business Process as a Service

“…The basic mechanism is based on the transformation approach of the LearnPAd project [9]. Semantic annotations allow for the human modeller to add semantics to the modelling element while creating the graphical models [16]. There are seven different ways of implementing semantic annotation.…”

“…This involves the identification of executable workflows for specific business process models through applying service discovery and composition techniques. This requires that the information about the business process, the service requirements and the workflows are represented in machine-interpretable format [16].…”

From Anarchy to System: A Novel Classification of Visual Knowledge Codification Techniques

“…Visual models may have elements with similar names but with a different meaning, and conversely, concepts with similar meaning may have varying names and signs. In order to resolve this problem, a unified meta-model (Karagiannis and Höfferer, 2006;Heidari et al, 2013) or ontology (Andersson et al, 2006;Guizzardi et al, 2006;Grigoriev and Kudryavtsev, 2011;Hinkelmann et al, 2015) can be used. Additionally, consistent diagram examples, developed in accordance with the chosen notation, are useful (training dataset).…”