Linked Enterprise Models and Objects (LEMO)

An integrated way in enterprise modelling: Interlinking enterprise models and enterprise information objects.

This is a proposal for a student project at the School of Business of the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland FHNW. Important: The following content has a hypothetical character and will be evaluated within several master theses.

The HSW-LEMO Project

HSW (School of Business FHNW)-LEMO (Linked Enterprise Models and Objects)-Project

• The goal of this joint research project is to evaluate the hypothesis of “Linked Enterprise Models and Objects (LEMO)”.
• It is designed as a joint research project of different master students working on their own research questions.
• The variety of topics is within the LEMO. Nevertheless, there are business oriented and technical oriented topics available.
• Apart from the literature review, the project starts with the creation of the application scenario.
• The application scenario will be created during the creation of a real world enterprise architecture.
• The students are invited to create an enterprise architecture for the School of Business FHNW during research proposal phase.
• This gives a unique opportunity to put the enterprise architecture methodology into practice and have access to real world data. Apart from that, our experts in enterprise architecture (Knut Hinkelmann and others) will coach the students.

Students of the Master of Science in Business Information Systems programme of the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland FHNW can choose the following research topics:

1. LEMO Method: Design a new generalized, step-wised an iterative method for enterprise modelling
2. LEMO Cycle: Introduce an innovative cyclic roundtrip approach, which enables to keep enterprise models with an enterprise ontology in-sync
3. LEMO Incorporation: Work on John Zachman’s vision of an Enterprise Ontology - interlink and formalize Enterprise Architecture Frameworks
4. LEMO Cockpit: Develop an enterprise cockpit presenting the telemetry of an enterprise
5. LEMO Browser: Cognitively adequate visual representation of an enterprise ontology that enables domain experts, modelling experts and ontology engineers to get a quick overview of the enterprise vocabulary and existing models
6. LEMO Integration and Change: Enrich enterprise IT with semantic information of an enterprise ontology using a mediator based integration scenario

Background

The information challenge

In the current world enterprise are confronted with different information challenges. Starting with the information technology perspective, enterprises are confronted with multiple systems and technologies. This makes it difficult to get a comprehensive and consistent view of all information systems that are running. Apart from the information technology diversification itself, good data quality and specification are absolutely important for decision making and expectation meeting. Finally the information flow, it is all about communication and speaking the same language in an enterprise.

Enterprise models

Enterprise models are an excellent way to explain, constrain, guide and predict things in a company. They contain valuable knowledge about the enterprise itself and provide adequate representations to different stakeholders. Good (enterprise) models are correct, relevant, economical efficient, clear, comparable and systematically designed (Becker et. al.). Enterprise models are a brilliant tool to understand what already exists in a company and what will be in future - that’s conversation by enterprise models. They do an excellent job when designing and shaping the future of an enterprise - guidance by enterprise models. And with the usage of enterprise models it is possible to verify and asses the current situation of the enterprise itself - that's compliance by enterprise models.

Linked enterprise models

Enterprise models can only fulfil these high expectations when they are made (1) explicit, (2) linked to other models and based on a (3) common shared understanding. To produce consistent, relevant and clear enterprise models they have to be made explicit. Otherwise "[…] you are making assumptions about any […] model that you have not made explicit and those assumptions may be right… or they may be wrong" (John A. Zachman, 2012). Consistent enterprise models can't exist in an isolated manner - the reality is not isolated. It is extremely rarely the case that a business process model has no relationship to an information model, document model or an organisational chart. It is obvious that enterprise models are linked at least implicitly even they not build using the same modelling language. In essence, enterprise modelling should be about people, audiences and divisions talking to each other. To achieve this, people need a common shared understanding about the enterprise. They need to speak the same "language" using a common vocabulary. As a result, enterprise models should contain and reuse the enterprise specific common vocabulary.

Why are linked enterprise models important to business?

First of all enterprise models are a great method for an open and efficient communication over different divisions and stakeholders in an enterprise. Linked enterprise models enable the reusability of existing and shared concepts and circumstances in other models. This gives the possibility that an enterprise do not need to start from scratch again and again when modelling new perspectives. Apart from that, linked enterprise models are an excellent may to enhance the transparency within an enterprise.

Linked Enterprise Models & Enterprise Vocabularies

A common enterprise vocabulary enhances the reusability of common terms in enterprise models. An enterprise ontology ensures that the enterprise models are consistent.

• “[…] vocabularies define the concepts and relationships (also referred to as “terms”) used to describe and represent an area of concern” (W3C).
• “An ontology is a formal, explicit specification of a shared conceptualisation” [34, p. 184].
  • “There is no clear division between what is referred to as vocabularies and ontologies. […] The trend is to use the word ontology for more complex, and possibly quite formal collection of terms […]” (W3C).
  • “A controlled vocabulary is a list of terms that have been enumerated explicitly.” In a ideal situation all terms “[…] should have an unambiguous, non-redundant definition” (Pidcock 2003).
  • “A formal ontology is a controlled vocabulary expressed in an ontology representation language” (Pidcock 2003).

Linked Enterprise Models & Enterprise Ontologies

“The main purpose of an enterprise ontology is to promote the common understanding between people across enterprises, as well as to serve as a communication medium between people and applications, and between different applications” [35, p. 273].

Linked Enterprise Models & Enterprise Ontologies including Enterprise Architectures

• “Enterprise Architectures (AE) are a way to model the relevant aspects of an enterprise and interdependencies between business and information systems” (Martin et. al., 2013).
• According to Zachman, an Enterprise Architecture Framework is an ontology and a “structured set of essential components of an object for which explicit expressions is necessary and perhaps even mandatory for creating, operating, and changing the object […]” (Zachman, 2008) e.g. an enterprise.
• The Zachman Framework is not formalized in an ontology representation language till now – but it should be. The FHNW has introduced a formalized enterprise ontology called ArchiMEO, which is based on enterprise architecture framework ArchiMate.

Application

Linked Enterprise Models

Enterprise vocabulary / ontology: can improve the communication between people inside an enterprise.

• Information queries e.g.
  • Information demand: “Who need which kind of information?”
• Model queries e.g.
  • Model correctness: “Are our enterprise models consistent?”
  • Model relevance: “Do we need that enterprise model?”

Making more out of it: Linked Enterprise Models & Objects

Information integration and data analysis is a hot topic in enterprises nowadays. This can be observed that the term Big Data is used inflationary. Detractors argue that: "The big thing about big data is that there are too much data“. True or not - important is that existing data of an enterprise is used in an intelligent way, which refers us to the term “smart data”. In fact the term “smart” does have different meanings. “Smart” can mean “intelligent” and (apart from other meanings) it can stand for “sharp pain”. Well, both meanings can be true for enterprise data. Data can be inconsistent, missing, false, etc. and important it is often the case that data is not based on a enterprise specific common shared understanding. That makes it difficult to reuse and integrate – “that’s indeed a sharp pain”. As a hypothesis, a possible solution to that problem would be to integrate and interlink all relevant data or information objects using the enterprise vocabulary formalized as enterprise ontology. The enterprise ontology can act as a integration schema.

Linked Enterprise Models & Objects

Enterprise over-view: dynamic reports for different stakeholders (e.g. management cockpit).

• Information queries e.g.
  • Information redundancy: “Do we have redundant information?”
  • Information inconsistency: “Do we have data, which is not consistent according to an enterprise vocabulary?”
• Model queries e.g.
  • Model efficiency: “Does your enterprise work as expected?”