INF6110 - Modelling The Enterprise

Modelling the Enterprise
INF6110 – Information Systems Modelling

Dr. P Abbott
2
Contents
• Modelling the Enterprise

• Modelling Business Requirements
• Modelling Business Processes (Workflows)
17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

3
Defining Enterprise Modelling
MODELLING THE ENTERPRISE

4
Enterprise Modelling Defined

• An enterprise model can be defined as a:
• Representation of the structure, activities, processes, information, resources,
people, behaviour, goals and constraints of a business, government, or other
enterprise
• …Which can be both descriptive and definitional
• …Whose role is to deliver enterprise design, analysis and operation driven from
model-based perspectives
• An enterprise can be defined simply as:
• A unit of economic organisation or activity.

5
Enterprise Operations
• Economic activity can be decomposed into components such
as:
• Purchasing
• Marketing
• Manufacturing
• Finance
• Engineering
• Research & Development (R&D).
6
Purpose of Enterprise Modelling

• Enterprise modelling can help to:
• Establish requirements for suitable information systems which
support the enterprise
• Analyse and improve current business processes and performance
• Redesign organisational structures
• Identify new human resource roles and requirements.

7
Representing the Enterprise

• In information systems modelling there may be various views of
representing business systems:
• Business/Enterprise model – owner’s perspective
• Information System model – designer’s perspective
• Technology model – developer’s perspective
• Each perspective comes with its own tools, techniques and
representative schema.

8
An Example
If you are: Then your view is probably at the level of:
An Executive Manager Entities, process descriptions, process maps
A Programmer A sequence diagram
A Database Administrator Database design
A Systems Analyst Data flow diagram
A Network Administrator Network architecture diagram
A Systems Architect Conceptual models

9
Defining Systems Architectural Views
MODELLING THE ENTERPRISE

10
System Architecture
• The conceptual model of a system together with derived
models that represent:
• Different viewpoints defined as views
• Facets or concerns of the system linked to various stakeholders
• Restrictions for the deployment of the system
• Embeddedness into other (software) systems.

11
Architectural Frameworks I
• Five standard views in an architectural framework:
• The information or data view
represents the data that is required by the business to support its activities.
• The functional business or domain view
represents all the business processes and activities that must be supported.
• The integration or data-flow view
represents the flow of information through the business
• The deployment or technology view
represents the physical configuration and technology components used to deploy the architecture in the operating
environment
• The infrastructure or embedment view
represents the system as a black- or grey-box and concentrates on the
embedding of the system into other systems that are either supporting the
system or are using systems services.

12
Architectural Frameworks II
• These views answer the questions:
• What information is being processed?
• What business activities are being carried out?
• Which business activities require the information?
• Where is the information located?
• What services are required/provided?

13
Architectural Frameworks
• These views answer the questions:
• What information is being processed?
Information/Data Modelling
• What business activities are being carried out?
Enterprise/Business Modelling
• Which business activities require the information?
• Where is the information located?
• What services are required/provided?
Enterprise/Business Modelling
14
Enterprise Architecture
Interpreted from (Zachman 1999)

Image: Al Zuech, Director, Enterprise Architecture Service at the US Department of Veterans Affairs. - VA’s
Enterprise Architecture, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5700608

15
Business Use Case (BUC) Modelling
MODELLING BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS

16
Business Use Case Modelling

• Business use case modelling is a technique aimed at documenting and
representing business requirements:
• From a service-oriented perspective
Actors’ expectations of the business
• In a predominantly textual manner
Structured English
• In a structured way
Properties defining service and delivery
• In a form that can be mapped to system requirements
System use cases (Ref: De Cesare, Lycett, & Paul, 2003).

17
Use Cases Defined

• Definitions of use case:
• A sequence of transactions in a system whose task is to yield a result of measurable
value to an individual actor of the system (Jacobson et al., 1995)
• A description of a set of sequence of actions, including variants, that a system performs
that yields an observable result of value to a particular actor (OMG, UML 1.1)
(Ref: De Cesare, Lycett, & Paul, 2003).

18
Business Use Cases

• A business use case (BUC) is the description of a service, and its underlying business process,
offered by the organisation and requested by an external party (actor). Thus, the properties
of a BUC must:
• Explicitly name the service
BUC name
• Describe the underlying business process
Pre-conditions, Triggering Event, Process Flow, Alternate Flows, Post-conditions
Can be depicted graphically as well (business process diagrams)
• Define the BUC actor
External party expecting an observable result from the service
Someone or something that lies beyond the boundary of the organisation/business unit under study

19
Modelling Business Requirements

• The following represents an indicative list of steps to carry out BUC modelling:
• Brainstorming session
Identify candidate set of business actors and use cases
• Structure the identified concepts into diagrams
Use case diagrams
• Describe the concepts
Business use cases
• Model the process flows (workflow)
Business process diagrams
• Continue until the model stabilises
Reasonable level of agreement amongst the stakeholders.

20
Business Use Case Template

Property Definition
Business Use Case Name Defines the name of the use case.
Actor Recipient of the service. Must lie outside the business boundary.
Trigger Initiating event of the business process.

Pre-conditions Conditions that must be satisfied for the use case to take place.
Basic Flow Description of the flow of activities that ordinarily take place for the execution of the
process defined in the use case.
Alternate Flows Description of alternate courses of execution of the process.
Post-conditions Conditions that must hold true after the termination of the process.

21
BUC Examples
MODELLING BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS

22
Business use case model example
UML use case describing a

restaurant:
Represents:
Actors, activities,
relationships between
activities, interactions
Diagram taken from UML-Diagrams: UML

Diagrams Website

23
Use Case Diagrams

Business Boundary
Relationship
Insurance Ltd.
Business Use Cases
Applicant Apply for policy
Submit claim Customer
Actors

24
Benefits and Limitations

• Benefits
• Technique can be easily learned by business people
• Facilitates communication between stakeholders and modellers
• Both textual and graphical representations
• Same technique can be applied for systems requirements
• Limitations
• Confusion surrounding the meaning and application of use cases
• Business use cases are not well-documented in the literature.
(Ref: De Cesare, Lycett, & Paul, 2003)

25
Worked Example
• The worked example that follows is:
• Based on a hypothetical Bank who wishes to model its front-office
operations
• Not intended to be exhaustive, but provides sufficient detail to
understand how to apply business use case modelling.
(Ref: De Cesare, Lycett, & Paul, 2003)

26
Business Use Case Diagrams

27
Business Use Case

BUC: Apply for account
Primary Actor Customer
Supporting Actors Clerk
Pre-conditions Applicant must be 18 years of age or older and reside in the European Union.
Trigger Customer request
Basic Flow 1. Following the customer’s request to open a bank account, the bank clerk collects the
customer’s details and those of the requested account.
2. If the applicant is a company then certain conditions can be negotiated.
3. The customer is given information related to when and how he/she will receive a
response of approval or rejection from the bank.
4. The clerk sends the application to the accounts department.
5. The clerk submits application form with valid details to the credit-checking department
for validation/credit scoring.
6. The credit-checking department proceeds with the validation of the application and
informs the accounts department of the outcome.
7. If validation is ok the account is created otherwise the request is rejected.
8. The customer is informed of the outcome and provided with all necessary information.
Alternate Flows None

Post-conditions Creation of new account. Customer informed. (Main success scenario) or Customer
informed of rejected application
28
Business Process Modelling
MODELLING BUSINESS PROCESSES

(WORKFLOWS)

29
Definitions of Business Process

• Definitions of business process include:
• A lateral or horizontal organisational form that encapsulates the
interdependence of tasks, roles, people, departments and functions required to
provide a customer with a product or a service (Earl 1994)
• The set of internal activities performed to serve a customer (Jacobson 1995)
• A purposeful activity carried out collaboratively by a group, often crossing
functional boundaries and invariably driven by outside agents or customers
(Ould 1995)
• A set of partially ordered activities intended to reach a goal (Hammer and
Champy 1993).

30
Why use model business process models?

• (AS-IS) to understand how the current process works
• To document the process for communication or training needs
• To ensure standardisation of practices across the organisation
• To identify problems and weaknesses in the current process
• (TO-BE) to design improvements that can be implemented to enhance
the process.

31
Processes Model Behaviour

• Processes are one of the elements that define the behaviour of business
organisations
• Other elements include, for example, services, events and rules
• Processes define the dynamics of business behaviour, act on entities or resources
and are carried out by participants
• Generally speaking process representations are characterised by events,
activities, inputs and outputs.

32
Business Process Models

• Business Process Models are meant to depict the flow of work that
makes up a business process.
• Business process models are generally made up of the following basic
elements:
• Triggers that start the process
• The process flow of tasks
• Decision points
• Actors that carry out the tasks
• Outcomes of the process.

33
Business Events
• Business events are represented as triggers in a business process model
• 3 types can be identified:
• External – occur outside of the boundary of the organisation, e.g. events
initiated by customers (enquiries, orders, emails etc.)
• Internal – usually occur due to management decisions/regulations, e.g. deciding
to offer customers rebates or discounts or setting targets for efficiency
• Scheduled – occur at regular intervals or specific times of day, week, month, year

34
Business Rules
• Business rules are represented by flows, decision points, and lanes in a
business process model
• They are:
• Constraints on how or by whom an activity can be performed and may be
governed by laws, regulations and business policy
• Operational guidelines concerning procedures that need to be followed in order
to carry out an activity

35
Process Modelling Notation

• Rummler-Brache Notation (early 1990’s)
• IBM’s LOVEM (from Rummler-Brache)
• Integrated Definition Methods (IDEF0, IDEF1, IDEF3, IDEF5) – US AirForce
• Object Management Group’s (OMG) Unified Modelling Language (UML) activity
diagrams (from Rummler-Brache)
• Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) (from Rummler-Brache)
Contemporary Business Process Modelling

uses a combination of UML and BPMN

36
Modelling with BPMN

(WORKFLOWS)

37
Modelling with BPMN

• BPMN offers three levels of business process modelling
• Process Maps
• Simple flow charts with the business activities
• Fairly high level without much detail
• Process Description
• More extensive information provided such as roles, data, information
• Process Models
• Enough detail such that the model can be automated, i.e. can lead to a simulation model
• BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) is the language which automates a valid BPMN
diagram

38
BPMN
• BPMN stands for Business Process Modelling Notation
• Current version is BPMN 2.0
• BPMN defines one type of diagram
• Business Process Diagram (BPD)
• BPD is similar to other process flow modelling techniques (e.g.,
flow charts, UML activity diagrams, etc.).

39
BPMN Basics
• BPMN elements can be classified, for convenience, as follows:
• Flow objects: used to express the flow of a process
• Connecting objects: used to connect flow objects mainly
• Swimlanes: used to partition diagram elements
• Artefacts: used to provide additional information that is not directly
related to the flow of the process.

40
Flow Objects
• Event
• Something that happens during the course of a business process
• In BPMN restricted to include only events that affect the sequence
or timing of a process
• Start, intermediate and end events
• Activity
• Work that is performed within a business process
• Sub-process and task (looped task)
• Gateway
• Elements that control how sequence flows interact as they
converge and diverge within a process
• Represents decisions, forking, merging and joining of paths

41
Connecting Objects
• Sequence Flow
• Represents the order in which the activities are
performed
• Message Flow
• Represents the flow of messages between two
separate Process Participants
• Association
• Relates data, text and other artefacts with
other BPD elements

42
Swimlanes
• Pool
• Represents a participant in a
process (e.g., company, person,
role, etc.)
• Lane
• A sub-partition within a pool which
is used to organise and categorise
activities.
• A lane extends over the entire
length of the pool

43
Artefacts
• Data Object
• Represents data required by activities
• Annotation
• Mechanism to enable the modeller to provide
additional information as text
• Group
• Mechanism for informally grouping elements
of a BPD

44
Types of BPMN Sub-models

• Depending on the purpose of the model and what wants to be highlighted, BPMN
defines three sub-models:
• Private (internal) business processes
Emphasis is placed on one participant or organisation
Orchestration of activities
• Abstract (public) processes
Emphasis is placed on the interactions between an organisation’s internal activities and
another organisation as a whole
• Collaboration (global) processes
Emphasis is on the interactions between activities internal to different organisations
Choreography of business processes

45
Private Business Processes

• Private (internal) business processes
• Processes that are internal to an organisation
• Contained within a single pool
• Swimlanes can be used

46
Abstract (Public) Processes

• Abstract (public) processes
• Represent the interactions between a private business process and another process or
participant
• Only activities that are used to communicate outside the private business process (and
appropriate flow control) are included

47
Collaboration (Global) Processes

• Collaboration (global) processes
• Represent the interactions between two or more business entities (e.g. supply chains,
virtual organisations, etc.)

48
BPMN Examples

(WORKFLOWS)

49
An example BPMN model

BPMN models can offer a
range of complexity
depending on the modeller’s
needs.
What level is represented

here?
Source: White & Miers 2008 “Exercises and Answers” from Answers to White & Miers 2008 Exercises
50
Worked Example
• Consider the FinBank use case
• Identify some of its business processes around applying for an
account
• Assume a business process called ‘Process Customer Application’
• Model the ‘Process Customer Application’ process in BPMN

51
Example: Process Customer Application

52
Summary
• Modelling the enterprise begins with establishing different views of
conceptual modelling
• Business requirements can be modelled using UML Business Use Case
Modelling at a high level
• At a lower level, the details of business processes can be modelled using
business process modelling
• BPMN is one example of modelling notation used to diagram workflows

53
References
1. BPMN Specification - Business Process Model and Notation. (n.d.). Retrieved 13 October 2017, from
http://www.bpmn.org/
2. De Cesare, S., Lycett, M., & Paul, R. J. (2003). Actor perception in business use case modeling. Communications
of the Association for Information Systems, 12(1), 15.
3. Guidelines: Business Use-Case Model. (2001.). Retrieved 13 October 2017, from
http://sce.uhcl.edu/helm/rationalunifiedprocess/process/modguide/md_bucm.htm
4. Jaakkola, H., & Thalheim, B. (2010). Architecture-Driven Modelling Methodologies. In EJC (pp. 97–116).
Retrieved from http://ai2-s2-pdfs.s3.amazonaws.com/65b8/e7d0790f2e63d360fa521800e069238fda0f.pdf
5. Scott, K. (2001). UML explained. Boston: Addison-Wesley.
6. Zachman, J. A. (1999). A framework for information systems architecture. IBM Systems Journal, 38(2&3), 454–
470.

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Modelling the Enterprise

INF6110 – Information Systems Modelling

• Modelling the Enterprise

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

Defining Enterprise Modelling

MODELLING THE ENTERPRISE

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

Enterprise Modelling Defined

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

Purpose of Enterprise Modelling

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

Representing the Enterprise

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

Defining Systems Architectural Views

MODELLING THE ENTERPRISE

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

Interpreted from (Zachman 1999)

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

Business Use Case (BUC) Modelling

MODELLING BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

Business Use Case Modelling

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

Use Cases Defined

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

Business Use Cases

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

Modelling Business Requirements

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

Business Use Case Template

Trigger Initiating event of the business process.

Alternate Flows Description of alternate courses of execution of the process.

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

MODELLING BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

Business use case model example

UML use case describing a

Diagram taken from UML-Diagrams: UML

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

Use Case Diagrams

Business Use Cases

Applicant Apply for policy

Submit claim Customer

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

Benefits and Limitations

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

Business Use Case Diagrams

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

Business Use Case

Alternate Flows None

Business Process Modelling

MODELLING BUSINESS PROCESSES

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

Definitions of Business Process

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

Why use model business process models?

17/10/2022 © The University of Sheffield / Information School

Processes Model Behaviour