Perspectives on Reference Modeling

Abstract

Conceptual models play an increasingly important role in all phases of the information systems life cycle. For instance, they are used for business engineering, information systems development, and customizing of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Despite conceptual modeling being a vital instrument for developing information systems, the modeling process often is resource-consuming and faulty. As a way to overcome these failures and to improve the development of enterprise-specific models, the concept of reference modeling has been introduced. A reference model is a conceptual framework and may be used as a blueprint for information systems development. In this Chapter, we seek to motivate research on reference modeling and introduce the chapters of this book on using reference models for business systems analysis. Our discussion is based on a framework for research on reference modeling that consists of four elements: reference modeling languages, reference modeling methods, reference models, and reference modeling context. Each element of the framework is discussed with respect to prior research, the contributions of chapters in this book, and future research opportunities.