Background and motivation
In the past four years mounting evidence suggests that a unified enterprise modelling language would be desirable to further the development of the still fragmented enterprise modelling area. This was reinforces by the ICEIM97 series of workshops and conference in Torino, and the ICEM99 conference in Verdal.
Several mainstream activities attack the problem of this integration, starting from directions of CASE tool integration (CDIF), interoperation of process modelling tools (PIF / PSL), and the extension of object oriented modelling to areas outside of the scope of object modelling tools (UML/OMG) - and many other notable efforts in the works today.
The IFIP-IFAC Task Force does not propose to take over the co-ordination of these efforts today, but it proposes to prepare the ground for a unification process that could lead to the development of a Unified Enterprise Modelling Language on the basis of the above efforts (and others not mentioned here).
The Task Force will invite members of each of these communities to achieve this goal, and actively liaise with ISO, IEC and other standards bodies to identify standardisation opportunities.
Deliverable
The Enterprise Modelling Interest Group will establish working collaboration with all relevant groups in the area and prepare a report as well as a proposed road-map that would lead to a technically feasible and politically acceptable solution that integrates them in a extendable but interoperable way.
It is expected that the effort may help the acceptance of a standard meta-meta model (and underlying ontology) for enterprise modelling and that this will be harmonised with the modelling needs of other enterprise entities, such as products (e.g. manufactured products, software, hardware systems) and services.
Assessment and report on the technical content of work to develop an international consensus on enterprise modelling languages. The effort will be co-ordinated by Francois Vernadat. By the next meeting (December 1999) the work item will be technically flashed out to the detail such that it can be reasonably expected that this effort of the Task Force will lead to a successful outcome.
As members noted this task is both technically challenging and politically difficult, and will need the input of enterprise engineering expertise (constructs needed) and computer science expertise (define their semantics), as well as taking into account the implementation realities and using the contribution of major modelling tool and information integration platform developers.
The task therefore includes the assessment of who the key players are and securing their co-operation and collaboration as well as defining the co-ordinating role of the Task Force in the area. Certainly the interests and the stakes are high and we must set realistic goals.
It is expected that both technical report (state of the art) and standardisation input will be generated from this work item
Background and motivation
Both the strategic workshop and individual correspondence of members expressed the view that the use of GERAM and associated reference architectures is limited without actual models available for the end user. The gap between the end user application and the necessarily abstract presentation of enterprise reference architectures needs to be narrowed.
Many reference models exist in the field of enterprise architecture, however they need to be completed from two aspects: a) detail must be added to specifically tackle the global virtual nature of the enterprise b) existing models describe specific aspects or parts of the enterprise and there is no reference model that would integrate them.
Particular concern is the poorly understood overlap of some reference models.
Recent discussions with members of the Task Force who attended the International Conference on Enterprise Modelling 1999 in Verdal Norway, at TU Denmark, at ETI and at MSI Loughborough indicate that such reference model can only be developed using the approach in which the reference model is delivered as an (open ended) set of components and rules of combination, possibly based on some form of agent model.
Deliverable
The GVE Reference Model is a Generic Master Plan extending to the identification, concept and requirements levels of the Global Virtual Enterprise. GVE-RM's scope must include equally elaborate models of the
i.e., the models must consider human and cultural issues, as well as technical ones.
Since the service / production functions of each GVE are industry- or company specific the GVE-RM must have suitably generalised interfaces to the service / production functions of the GVE. It is anticipated that the outcome of this work may be the source of a number of specialised reference models.
It is proposed that this development is to be done using the life-cycle approach proposed in the GERAM specification and its embodyments in PERA, CIMOSA, GRAI-GIM as well as other significant reference architectures. Thus the work itself would be a demonstration of the use of generic reference architectures and methodologies.
In the first instance the work would deliver a state-of-the-art report on refernce models that cover the entire enterprise or a substancial part of it, and from this report conclude a direction of work to be followed.
Organisation of work
The Task Force will recruit new members from the large number of projects, which have recently addressed the question of virtual enterprise creation and operation. It will be particularly important to recruit members who have a background in the human organisational design of the enterprise (e.g. experts with management science / information systems background).
The first step of the will be a review of existing reference models and a report proposing a way of integrating them thus determining the further work plan.
Assessment and report on the technical content of this work is to develop a generalised enterprise reference model, covering all types and forms of enterprises (that is, global and virtual enterprises among others). As can be expected the reference model will concentrate of the management and control side of the enterprise, including the human, technical and business process elements. This effort will be lead by Peter Bernus. By the next meeting (December 1999) the work item will be technically flashed out to the detail such that it can be reasonably expected that this effort of the Task Force will lead to a successful outcome.
There are several reference models in the field which are either competing or their overlaps and possible joint usage is not well understood. Therefore the work must assess the state of the art and who the key players are in the area, and involve them in the effort. This will also determine the exact role of the Task Force in this development. It is expected that the biggest impact could be made in three ways: a) showing how existing reference models relate to one another and thereby identifying their strengths and weaknesses, as well as showing how they can be combined, etc. b) determining how business design on the highest management level can be achieved through using reference model building blocks and their combination rules, protocols, in a plug and play / component based fashion, and developing requirements for inter-enterprise management transactions (including but not limited to electronic commerce transactions).
Users
The RM must integrate and unify existing models that address various parts, or aspects, of the enterprise so as to be readily applicable by its users including
Background and motivation
The development of GERAM by the Task Force during the years 1994-1998 has had significant impact on both standardisation and industry end users. The present version, v1-6-3 is an annex to the ISO FDIS WD15704, "Requirements for enterprise-reference architectures and methodologies" and the standard itself is an extract of the normative content of this GERAM definition.
The Globeman 21 consortium in its final report accepted GERAM as basis for its common concept and applied it in its work packages, specifically to engineer virtual project enterprises.
Correspondence of Task Force members and the November 1998 strategic workshop suggests that for end users it is necessary to employ GERAM experts to make the best use of the many concepts defined. It is believed that further developing the GERAM specification would add clarity and exactitute to improve the usability of GERAM without mediators.
Other communities, such as the Software Engineering and Systems Engineering community are actively pursuing the development of a new life-cycle standard for the use in this area. GERAM and it associated particular reference architectures could provide important input to this task, and if timing permits the new Software and Systems Life-cycle Reference Architecture developed in ISO / IEC JTC1 SC7 could be a special version of GERAM. Such proposal was tabled by the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC7 - ISO TC184/SC5 liaison at the Strategic workshop on Enterprise Integration and Enterprise Computing, and an invitation to the IFIP-IFAC Task Force to provide its input has been issued by the respective working group chair.
Deliverable
Version(s) of GERAM with detail incorporated for manufacturing and software and systems development.
It is a mandate that these details remain generic to the extent so as to a) allow individual reference architecture developers to comply with these requirements, and b) allow the combination / mixing-and-matching of the techniques incorporated in individual architectures.
I. Improved definitions (and if possible simplification) of the GERAM definition
However, the new version must include a presentation that enables step-by-step learning to improve the usability of this document. At present the document is a definition not aimed at users. Notwidthstanding the above it is not expected that learning the use of GERAM would become a short exercise, simply because of the number of detail that needs learning.
It could be considered to develop the new GERAM version as a standard in its own right, with specialisation to manufacturing business. As a result, the common (truly generic) part would be shared by ISO TC184/SC5/WG1 and ISO/IEC JTC1/SC7/WG7, while the application area specific part would be separately developed.
II. Joint deliverable of Software and Systems Life Cycle Standard with ISO/IEC JTC1/SC7/WG7
It is anticipated that this Reference Architecture would elaborate detail specifically important to the Systems and Software engineering community, and also will provide input to the further development of GERAM (item I).
GERAM and comliant reference architectures have been extensively used for systems engineering inindustry and it is therefore likely that it will be able to be used in the systems life-cycle standards effors by respective standards bodies.
Organisation of work
The Task Force will as a whole participate in this work and recruit additional members especially from among the various interest groups and developers of reference architectures, whose representatives were not members of the IFIP-IFAC Task Force previously.
The first important activity of this interest group must be to immediately start work with ISO/IEC JTC1/SC7/WG7, including attendance at their meetings during 1999-2000, Nantes, October 1999; Madrid, May 2000.
It remains the responsibility of the Task Force as a whole to demonstrate the use of GERAM and of the particular architectures that are complete according to the GERAM requirements, to position new architectures and proposals as they come aboard. However, this will not be done in a project-like manner with deadlines and pre-defined milestones and deliverables, unlike items I and II.
Note, that in addition, as a natural consequence of items I and II, languages and tools, as well as partial models of importance, would be mapped in the GERAM space anyway, further demonstrating the usefulness of the concepts developed sofar.
The Task Force as a whole will maintain / establish close liaison with
As a result Task Force work will be contributed as early as reasonable to the international standards development by these bodies.
Immediate input is needed for the Systems and Software Life Cycle development by ISO IEC JTC1 SC7, and to the road-map of ISO TC184 SC5 WG1.
See minutes of the Beijing 1999 meeting of the IFIP-IFAC Task Force and a complete reference to discussion documents