2018, Laurenzi, Emanuele, Hinkelmann, Knut, Izzo, Stefano, Reimer, Ulrich, van der Merwe, Alta

The advent of digitalization exposes enterprises to an ongoing transformation with the challenge to quickly capture relevant aspects of changes. This brings the demand to create or adapt domain-specific modeling languages (DSMLs) efficiently and in a timely manner, which, on the contrary, is a complex and time-consuming engineering task. This is not just due to the required high expertise in both knowledge engineering and targeted domain. It is also due to the sequential approach that still characterizes the accommodation of new requirements in modeling language engineering. In this paper we present a DSML adaptation approach where agility is fostered by merging engineering phases in a single modeling environment. This is supported by ontology concepts, which are tightly coupled with DSML constructs. Hence, a modeling environment is being developed that enables a modeling language to be adapted on-the-fly. An initial set of operators is presented for the rapid and efficient adaptation of both syntax and semantics of modeling languages. The approach allows modeling languages to be quickly released for usage.

2013-11, Hinkelmann, Knut, Maise, Michaela, Thönssen, Barbara, van der Merwe, Alta, Gerber, Aurona, de la Harpe, Andre

In this paper we show how semantic metadata – derived from the enterprise architecture description - can improve both the exploitation of information in the operative business and the continuous alignment of information systems with the business. ArchiMEO, a formal representation of the ArchiMate framework, was applied to model selected parts of a large Swiss company, including metadata of concrete information objects stored in various applications. The evaluation of our approach clearly gave evidence that linking an enterprise ontology with operational databases is beneficiary: it provides an integrated view and management of enterprise entities spread over various data stores, represented in different ways and levels of granularity. Furthermore, because of its inference capabilities, when used as metadata encoding scheme an enterprise ontology can provide context-sensitive access to relevant information.

2018, Laurenzi, Emanuele, Hinkelmann, Knut, van der Merwe, Alta, Buchmann, Robert Andrei, Karagiannis, Dimitris, Kirikova, Marite

Enterprise knowledge is currently subject to ever-changing, complex and domain-specific modeling requirements. Assimilating these requirements in modeling languages brings the benefits associated to both domain-specific modeling languages (DSMLs) and a baseline of well-established concepts. However, there are two problems that hamper the speed and efficiency of this activity: (1) the separation between the two key expertise: language engineering and domain knowledge, and (2) the sequential modeling language engineering life-cycles. In this work, we tackle these two challenges by introducing an Agile and Ontology-Aided approach implemented in our Modeling Environment - the AOAME. The approach seamlessly integrates meta-modeling and modeling in the same modeling environment, thus cooperation between language engineers and domain experts is fostered. Sequential engineering phases are avoided as the adaptation of the language is done on-the-fly. To this end, a modeling language is grounded with an ontology language providing a clear, unambiguous and machine-interpretable semantics. Mechanisms implemented in the AOAME ensure the propagation of changes from the modeling environment to the graph-based database containing the ontology.

2016, Hinkelmann, Knut, Gerber, Aurona, Karagiannis, Dimitris, Thönssen, Barbara, van der Merwe, Alta, Woitsch, Robert

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. In this paper a new paradigm for next generation enterprise information systems is proposed, which shifts the development approach of model-driven engineering to continuous alignment of business and IT for the agile enterprise. It is based on a metamodelling approach, which supports both human-interpretable graphical enterprise architecture and machine-interpretable enterprise ontologies. Furthermore, next generation enterprise information systems are described, which embed modelling tools and algorithms for model analysis.