企业架构设计规范研究与实践

现今企业分布式的特性和复杂性的加强,对企业架构方法的定制性、扩展性和敏捷性提出了新的要求.本文对三种主流的企业架构方法Zachman、FEA和TOGAF进行了横向对比和介绍,对TOGAF方法论配套的架构设计语言ArchiMate和统一建模语言UML进行了纵向对比和分析,通过一个真实案例展示了使用ArchiMate设计企业架构的基本方法,以及在实践过程中如何根据项目需要进行定制,此案例可为企业架构设计提供参考.     

CEN standardization activities related to CIMOSA

The paper describes the work of standardization committee CEN TC310 WG1 and its predecessor on manufacturing standards for Systems Architecture and in particular Enterprise Modelling for CIM. That work builds upon a common conceptual high-level framework (ENV 40 003:1991), heavily based on input from CIMOSA, within which key enterprise modelling concepts can be identified. A later standard (ENV 12204:1995) sets out thirteen ‘modelling constructs' necessary for computer-based modelling of enterprises, focusing on discrete parts manufacturing. In late 1998 WG1 was developing a draft ENV (‘EMEIS') on the services required to develop, execute (enact) and integrate enterprise models on an open ICT platform. The paper concludes with areas of possible future work on revising the Framework, on Human Issues, on Construct Modelling and on providing guidance in the use of modelling constructs.     

A method for transforming knowledge discovery metamodel to ArchiMate models

Enterprise architecture has become an important driver to facilitate digital transformation in companies, since it allows to manage IT and business in a holistic and integrated manner by establishing connections among technology concerns and strategical/motivational ones. Enterprise architecture modelling is critical to accurately represent business and their IT assets in combination. This modelling is important when companies start to manage their enterprise architecture, but also when it is remodelled so that the enterprise architecture is realigned in a changing world. Enterprise architecture is commonly modelled by few experts in a manual way, which is error-prone and time-consuming and makes continuous realignment difficult. In contrast, other enterprise architecture modelling proposal automatically analyses some artefacts like source code, databases, services, etc. Previous automated modelling proposals focus on the analysis of individual artefacts with isolated transformations toward ArchiMate or other enterprise architecture notations and/or frameworks. We propose the usage of Knowledge Discovery Metamodel (KDM) to represent all the intermediate information retrieved from information systems’ artefacts, which is then transformed into ArchiMate models. Thus, the core contribution of this paper is the model transformation between KDM and ArchiMate metamodels. The main implication of this proposal is that ArchiMate models are automatically generated from a common knowledge repository. Thereby, the relationships between different-nature artefacts can be exploited to get more complete and accurate enterprise architecture representations.

     

Management and enterprise architecture click: The FAD(E)E framework

Enterprises are living things. They constantly need to be (re-)architected in order to achieve the necessary agility, alignment and integration. This paper gives a high-level overview of how companies can go about doing ‘enterprise architecture’ in the context of both the classic (isolated) enterprise and the Extended Enterprise. By discussing the goals that are pursued in an enterprise architecture effort we reveal some basic requirements that can be put on the process of architecting the enterprise. The relationship between managing and architecting the enterprise is discussed and clarified in the FAD(E)E, the Framework for the Architectural Development of the (Extended) Enterprise. Frank G. Goethals completed his Master studies in economics (option informatics), at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, in 2000. He is presently researching for a Ph.D. under the theme of `Managing data in the Extended Enterprise'. This research is conducted at the K.U.Leuven under the guidance of professor J. Vandenbulcke, and is financed by SAP Belgium. Frank has a strong interest in coordination and dependency theory and Enterprise Architecture. Monique Snoeck obtained her Ph.D. in May 1995 from The Department of Computer Science of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven with a thesis that lays the formal foundations of the object-oriented business modelling method MERODE. Since then she has done further research in the area of formal methods for object-oriented conceptual modelling. She now is Full Professor with the Management Information Systems Group of the Faculty of Economics and Applied Economics at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. She has been involved in several industrial conceptual modelling projects. Her research interests are object oriented conceptual modelling, software architecture and software quality. Wilfried Lemahieu holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Applied Economic Sciences of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium (1999). At present, he is associate professor at the Management Informatics research group of the Faculty of Economics and Applied Economics. His teaching includes Database Management, Data Storage Architectures and Management Informatics. His research interests comprise distributed object architectures and web services, object-relational and object-oriented database systems and hypermedia systems. Jacques A. Vandenbulcke is professor at the Faculty of Economics and Applied Economics of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. His main research interests are in Database management, Data modelling, and Business Information Systems. He is co-ordinator of the Leuven Institute for Research on Information Systems (LIRIS) and holder of the SAP-chair on ‘Extended enterprise infrastructures’. He is president of ‘Studiecentrum voor Automatische Informatieverwerking (SAI)’, the largest society for computer professionals in Belgium, and co-founder of the ‘Production and Inventory Control Society (PICS)’ in Belgium.     

CIMOSA modelling processes

Engineering, integrating and managing complex enterprises requires the understanding, and the ability to partition and simplify their operational complexity. Enterprise modelling supports these requirements by providing means for describing process oriented systems and decomposing those into manageable pieces. However, enterprise modelling requires both a common modelling language and a sufficient modelling methodology. The language provides for common understanding on enterprise models across the industrial community. Modelling methodologies will guide users through the rather complex enterprise modelling tasks. Depending on the skills and the tasks of the modelling person, different methodologies will be implemented in the supporting modelling tool. The paper presents both a methodology for the modelling expert and one for the business user. Whereas the modelling expert will be involved in creating new models, structuring the model contents and developing new modelling components, the business user will use process models for decision support. The latter therefore has a need to modify and adapt enterprise models to represent operational alternatives. A methodology for this type of work has to be based on menus. Menus which are created and maintained by the modelling expert. The business user will mostly work with existing process models. He will evaluate process alternatives and will implement the best solution as the new model of his tasks. This mode of operation will thereby provide for automatic update of the models and will keep the models in sync with the changing reality.     

New perspectives in ontological analysis: Guidelines and rules for incorporating modelling languages into UEML

Ontological analysis of modelling languages has been mainly used for evaluating quality of modelling language w.r.t. one specific upper ontology. Generally speaking this evaluation has been done by identifying the coverage of the modelling language constructs w.r.t. the ontology and vice-versa. However, a quite limited support has been developed for performing the ontological analysis task. Specifically, various ontologies used for ontological analysis are not associated to a machine readable format; the coverage of modelling language constructs is mostly provided by informal tables mapping one construct on to one ontological concept; the way in which this coverage task is undertaken is poorly specified (resulting in distinct results for distinct experts involved), and finally, preventing any ontology enrichment for dealing with some specialised language constructs. This limited support also prevents application of ontological analysis outcomes to problems and domains dealing with interoperability, integration and integrated usage of enterprise and IS models, which is today one of the key aspects for making interoperable, maintainable and evolvable inter and intra enterprise software systems. The paper provides an overview of the Unified Enterprise Modelling Language (UEML) approach, which introduces advanced support to ontological analysis of modelling languages. The paper is specifically focused on the task of ontological analysis of modelling languages (named incorporation of modelling languages) by introducing and explaining several guidelines and rules for driving the task: therefore, not all the aspects of the UEML approach will be discussed through the paper. The guidelines and rules are illustrated by incorporation of three selected modelling constructs from IDEF3, a well known language for specifying enterprise processes.     

A visual language and environment for enterprise system modelling and automation

ObjectiveWe want to support enterprise service modelling and generation using a more end user-friendly metaphor than current approaches, which fail to scale to large organisations with key issues of “cobweb” and “labyrinth” problems and large numbers of hidden dependencies.MethodWe present and evaluate an integrated visual approach for business process modelling using a novel tree-based overlay structure that effectively mitigate complexity problems. A tree-overlay based visual notation (EML) and its integrated support environment (MaramaEML) supplement and integrate with existing solutions. Complex business architectures are represented as service trees and business processes are modelled as process overlay sequences on the service trees.ResultsMaramaEML integrates EML and BPMN to provide complementary, high-level business service modelling and supports automatic BPEL code generation from the graphical representations to realise web services implementing the specified processes. It facilitates generated service validation using an integrated LTSA checker and provides a distortion-based fisheye and zooming function to enhance complex diagram navigation. Evaluations of EML show its effectiveness.ConclusionsWe have successfully developed and evaluated a novel tree-based metaphor for business process modelling and enterprise service generation. Practice implications: a more user-friendly modelling approach and support tool for business end users.     

Bridging value modelling to ArchiMate via transaction modelling

The ArchiMate modelling language provides a coherent and a holistic view of an enterprise in terms of its products, services, business processes, actors, business units, software applications and more. Yet, ArchiMate currently lacks (1) expressivity in modelling an enterprise from a value exchange perspective, and (2) rigour and guidelines in modelling business processes that realize the transactions relevant from a value perspective. To address these issues, we show how to connect e \(^{3}\) value, a technique for value modelling, to ArchiMate via transaction patterns from the DEMO methodology. Using ontology alignment techniques, we show a transformation between the meta models underlying e \(^{3}\) value, DEMO and ArchiMate. Furthermore, we present a step-wise approach that shows how this model transformation is achieved and, in doing so, we also show the of such a transformation. We exemplify the transformation of DEMO and e \(^{3}\) value into ArchiMate by means of a case study in the insurance industry. As a proof of concept, we present a software tool supporting our transformation approach. Finally, we discuss the functionalities and limitations of our approach; thereby, we analyze its and practical applicability.     

Protocol modelling: A modelling approach that supports reusable behavioural abstractions

We describe a behavioural modelling approach based on the concept of a “Protocol Machine”, a machine whose behaviour is governed by rules that determine whether it accepts or refuses events that are presented to it. We show how these machines can be composed in the manner of mixins to model object behaviour and show how the approach provides a basis for defining reusable fine-grained behavioural abstractions. We suggest that this approach provides better encapsulation of object behaviour than traditional object modelling techniques when modelling transactional business systems. We relate the approach to work going on in model driven approaches, specifically the Model Driven Architecture initiative sponsored by the Object Management Group. Communicated by August-Wilhelm Scheer Ashley McNeile is a practitioner with over 25 years of experience in systems development and IT related management consultancy. His main areas of interest are requirements analysis techniques and model execution and in 2001 he founded Metamaxim Ltd. to pioneer new techniques in these areas. He has published and presented widely on object oriented development methodology and systems architecture. Nicholas Simons has been working with formal methods of system specification since their introduction, and has over 20 years experience in building tools for system design, code generation and reverse engineering. In addition, he lectures on systems analysis and design, Web programming and project planning. He is a co-founder and director of Metamaxim Ltd.     

Enterprise Integration—Business Processes Integrated Management: a proposal for a methodology to develop Enterprise Integration Programs

An approach to develop Enterprise Integration Programs to assist enterprises in their migration path towards integration is proposed. It is called IE—GIP (Enterprise Integration—Business Processes Integrated Management, acronyms in Spanish). The topic is very important in industrial engineering nowadays because of the growing need to improve existing industrial systems and to organise such complex systems faster, better, and in a more systematic way. The contribution to the field of Enterprise Integration is mostly a methodological one. More specifically, it is based on the integration of Purdue Enterprise Reference Architecture (PERA) and Open System Architecture for Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIMOSA) principles to propose an integration approach for industrial enterprises. Starting from existing leading proposals (CIMOSA, PERA, GERAM), a methodology has been defined and some extension to an architecture and supporting computer tools are discussed. The proposal covers the life cycle of an Enterprise Integration Program in a top-down approach. The approach is centred on the business process concept, but is based on a vision/process/people/technology view of the enterprise. The methodology divides the work into two major phases before system construction: master planning and CIM programme development. The method adapts the system life cycle of PERA but uses, whenever possible, the CIMOSA architecture with its business process approach. New CIMOSA-like constructs are introduced to be used in activities along with the methodology when necessary. To support the modelling phases of the proposal and to provide guidance to users of the methodology, computer supported tools have been developed in the course of this work.     

Exploring the future of enterprise architecture: A Zachman perspective

Today, and for the foreseeable future, organizations will face ever-increasing levels of complexity and uncertainty. Many believe that enterprise architecture (EA) will help organizations address such difficult terrain by guiding the design of adaptive and resilient enterprises and their information systems. This paper presents the “Grand Challenges” that we believe will challenge organizations in the future and need to be addressed by enterprise architecture. As a first step in using enterprise architecture as a solution for overcoming identified challenges, the Zachman Enterprise Architecture Framework is used to guide and structure the discussion. The paper presents the “Grand Challenges” and discusses promising theories and models for addressing them. In addition, current advances in the field of enterprise architecture that have begun to address the challenges will be presented. In conclusion, final thoughts on the future of enterprise architecture as a research field and a profession are offered.     

Semi-formal transformation of secure business processes into analysis class and use case models: An MDA approach

ContextModel-Driven Development (MDD) is an alternative approach for information systems development. The basic underlying concept of this approach is the definition of abstract models that can be transformed to obtain models near implementation. One fairly widespread proposal in this sphere is that of Model Driven Architecture (MDA). Business process models are abstract models which additionally contain key information about the tasks that are being carried out to achieve the company’s goals, and two notations currently exist for modelling business processes: the Unified Modelling Language (UML), through activity diagrams, and the Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN).ObjectiveOur research is particularly focused on security requirements, in such a way that security is modelled along with the other aspects that are included in a business process. To this end, in earlier works we have defined a metamodel called secure business process (SBP), which may assist in the process of developing software as a source of highly valuable requirements (including very abstract security requirements), which are transformed into models with a lower abstraction level, such as analysis class diagrams and use case diagrams through the approach presented in this paper.MethodWe have defined all the transformation rules necessary to obtain analysis class diagrams and use case diagrams from SBP, and refined them through the characteristic iterative process of the action-research method.ResultsWe have obtained a set of rules and a checklist that make it possible to automatically obtain a set of UML analysis classes and use cases, starting from SBP models. Our approach has additionally been applied in a real environment in the area of the payment of electrical energy consumption.ConclusionsThe application of our proposal shows that our semi-automatic process can be used to obtain a set of useful artifacts for software development processes.     

Operational building blocks for business process modelling

The modelling of business processes is a rather complex, difficult and therefore time-consuming process. The efficiency of this process can be significantly enhanced by employing reusable building blocks, rather than to describe business processes from scratch every time a model is being created or modified. The paper describes a reference model which identifies a set of generic building blocks needed for enterprise modelling and identifies their relationships. Further specialisation of these generic building blocks into a profession and/or industry branch oriented set enables business people to model their processes with a minimum requirement on IT know-how. The CIMOSA concepts and language have been selected as the basis for the reference model. Since CIMOSA is one of the basic concepts recognised in the relevant standardisation work, the presented approach also obeys very closely the relevant European and international standards.     

When agile meets the enterprise

ContextWhile renowned agile methods like XP and Scrum were initially intended for projects with small teams, traditional enterprise environments, i.e. environments where plan-driven development is prevalent, have also become attracted by the promises of a faster time to market through agility. Agile software development methods emphasize lightweight software development. Projects within enterprise environments, however, are typically confronted with a large and complex IT landscape, where mission-critical information is at play whose criticality requires prudence regarding design and development. In many an organization, both approaches are used simultaneously.ObjectiveFind out which challenges the co-existence of agile methods and plan-driven development brings, and how organizations deal with those challenges.MethodWe present a grounded theory of the challenges of using agile methods in traditional enterprise environments, based on a Grounded Theory research involving 21 agile practitioners from two large enterprise organizations in the Netherlands.ResultsWe organized the challenges under two factors: Increased landscape complexity and Lack of business involvement. For both factors, we identify successful mitigation strategies. These mitigation strategies concern the communication between the agile and traditional part of the organization, and the timing of that communication.ConclusionAgile practices can coexist with plan-driven development. One should, however, keep in mind the context and take actions to mitigate the challenges incurred.     

On modelling recursive calls and callbacks with two variants of Unified Modelling Language state diagrams

An important use of the Unified Modelling Language (UML) is modelling synchronous object-oriented software systems. State diagrams are used to model interesting object behaviour, including method invocation. However, almost all previous work formalising state diagrams has assumed asynchronous communication. We show that UML’s “run to completion” semantics leads to anomalous behaviour in the synchronous case, and in particular that it is not possible to model recursive calls, in which an object receives a second synchronous message whilst still in the process of reacting to the first. We propose a solution using state diagrams in two complementary ways.