Dr. Dominik Bork

New paper in EMISAJ

Recently, a new paper resulting form a collaboration between Steven Alter from the University of San Francissco any myself was published in the Enterprise Modelling and Information Systems Architectures - International Journal on Conceptual Modeling. The paper is an extended version of a previous paper that was published at the International Conference on Wirtschaftsinfroamtik (WI) in 2019.

The EMISAJ paper motivates a more flexible approach to enterprise modelling, and, as a consequence discusses requirements and challenges that need to be addressed in order to elevate modelling toward a more flexible level. In its core, the paper makes two concrete contributions:
i) it introduces a framework for classifying modeling method design principles and characteristics according to their flexibility (see Figure below), and
ii) it discusses three design alternatives for integrating different metamodels (see paragraph below).

Modeling Methods Design Space

Metamodel Integration Alternatives #

The paper discusses and proposes three metamodel design options for felxible modelling methods: Integrated metamodels, Interlinked metamodels, and Independent metamodels.

Integrated metamodels #

This metamodel design option provides tight integration of the metamodels for the different modeling techniques within the modeling method. That integration can be realized on the meta-metamodel layer or on the metamodel layer. Both options are introduced and exemplifies in the paper.

Interlinked metamodels #

Here, different metamodels are independent from each other, i.e., there exists neither an overarching meta-metamodel nor an overarching metamodel. Instead, loose coupling between the metamodels of the different modeling techniques is established by providing semantic linkages between selected concepts in the meta-models.

Independent metamodels #

With this option, metamodels of different modeling techniques remain completely independent from each other. Thus, they neither share any overarching meta-metamodel nor are concepts of the different metamodels related to each other.

A summary of the strengths and weaknesses of the three options is iven int he table below.

Metamodel Intergation Alternatives

Published paper #

The published paper can be found here:
https://emisa-journal.org/emisa/article/view/227/167

Citation:
Bork, D., & Alter, S. (2020). Satisfying Four Requirements for More Flexible Modeling Methods: Theory and Test Case. Enterprise Modelling and Information Systems Architectures (EMISAJ), 15, 3-1.

Any feedback is appreciated!