Process-based Definition of Enterprise Models

Abstract

Computer-based models for an enterprise should be technology-independent and expressed in terms meaningful to the application. They must be capable of being integrated with other models and with the enterprise itself as active, embedded components. A process-based structure is proposed as a unifying framework that can express models in a common form. This structure defines any model in terms of the internal and external events that occur during its lifetime. These events supply a complete and explicit representation with which to explain permitted behavior to users and to define this behavior formally. In addition to its role in abstract specification, the event-based framework can be implemented directly as the executable interface of a model. Such an implementation can supply the basic layer of an enterprise integration architecture.