Enterprise Modeling: A Multi-perspective Tool-Supported Approach

Enterprises are inherently complex systems, which involve a multitude of components working dynamically and in coordination to obtain a desired end goal. The intricacy of an enterprise and how the different components can be modeled is the area of research of Enterprise Modeling (EM). When holistically modeling an enterprise, it is required to use more than one modeling language, including general and domain specific modeling languages (DSML), to boost the comprehension of different enterprise areas. However, the use of multiple languages can lead to a lack of detail and understanding of the relationships between enterprise components that are modeled in different domains. Analyzing the relationships between various enterprise domains can generate valuable insight into understanding the uncertainty, complexity, and operations of an enterprise. In this paper, we present an approach to enable EM from multiple perspectives allowing enterprises to use different languages to describe various domains. This approach supports the creation of relationships and dependencies between domains, to analyze from different depths and viewpoints desired enterprise perspectives. Considering the needed requirements for multi-perspective modeling, we developed a workbench that allows the composition and merger of different EM languages and creates ad-hoc EM tools based on the necessities of the enterprise.