Comprehensive Tool Support for Enterprise Modeling and Evaluation

Abstract

Enterprise modelling and evaluating subsequently created models is manifold. Enterprise modelling means capturing an organization's business processes, its organizational structure, its corporate strategy, or its supporting information systems in graphical conceptual models. Evaluating these models means assuring their structural and semantic quality as well as their user group adequacy. Enterprise modelling and model evaluation requires comprehensive tool support. Recently, a number of modelling tools have been proposed each addressing particular aspects of enterprise modelling or model evaluation. For example, meta-modelling tools allow for defining new and altering existing modelling languages. Meta-modelling tools are thus well suited for enterprise modelling as this requires a large number of different modelling languages that may need to be adapted to the particular enterprise. In contrast, some modelling tools provide mechanisms to structurally or semantically evaluate models of a predefined language. However, comprehensive tool support for enterprise modelling and model evaluation is missing up to now. With this paper, the authors aim at closing this research gap by proposing a tool combining meta-modelling capabilities with features to structurally and semantically evaluate models as well as to manage model perspectives. The tool thus covers the entire model lifecycle from defining a problem-suitable modelling language, creating models, configuring them for different user groups, and evaluating them in terms of structure and semantics.