Ananda Edirisuriya

Towards a reference ontology for business models

Ontologies are viewed as increasingly important tools for structuring domains of interests. In this paper we propose a reference ontology of business models using concepts from three established business model ontologies; the REA, BMO, and e3-value. The basic concepts in the reference ontology concern actors, resources, and the transfer of resources between actors. Most of the concepts in the reference ontology are taken from one of the original ontologies, but we have also introduced a number of additional concepts, primarily related to resource transfers between business actors. The purpose of the proposed ontology is to increase the understanding of the original ontologies as well as the relationships between them, and also to seek opportunities to complement and improve on them.

On the notion of value object

It is increasingly recognized that business models offer an abstraction that is useful not only in the exploration of new business networks but also for the design and redesign of operational business processes. Among others, they can be used as input for a risk analysis that is crucial in cross-organizational business process design. However, the notion of value object is up till now not clearly defined. In this paper we investigate the notion of value, value objects and the activities involved when transferring value objects between business actors. We illustrate the proposed value object model by applying it on the well-known conference case.

A declarative foundation of process models

In this paper, a declarative foundation for process models is proposed. Three issues in process management and modeling are identified: business orientation, traceability, and flexibility. It is shown how these issues can be addressed by basing process models on business models, where a business model focuses on the transfer of value between agents. As a bridge between business models and process models, the notion of activity dependency model is introduced, which identifies, classifies, and relates activities needed for executing and coordinating value transfers.

Strategic Analysis Using Value Modeling--The c3-Value Approach

E3-value has proven to be a useful modeling technique and method to support the analysis of business models. However, for strategic analysis, the representation of a business model is not sufficient, as it does not include the rationale behind the model. In this paper, we propose an extension of e3-value to support strategic analysis on three dimensions: competition analysis, customer analysis and capability analysis

Elicitation of Requirements for a Business Process Model Repository

Today, there exist a number of process repositories with the aim of supporting the reuse of process models. Designing such repositories is a complex task, which should be guided by clear requirements. In order to support the development of future process repositories, we propose and justify a set of requirements for such repositories. These requirements are based on a number of essential properties of process repositories as well as a set of use cases. Furthermore, we carry out a survey and evaluation of a number of existing repositories based on the requirements identified in this paper.

On the Alignment of Business Models and Process Models

A value transfer is an interaction between two actors where the exchange of object of economic value takes place with their rights, custody and some evidence. Business models are used to describe organizational businesses by focusing on value transfers between actors. Process models are using to describe organizational business processes. They can be used for executing and coordinating value transfers. The paper proposes a way to align business models with process models grounded on value object and value transfer analysis.

Goal support towards business processes modelling

Enterprises employ goal models and process models in running their businesses, as well as when building information systems. A goal model is used to model the interests, intentions and strategies of different stakeholders. A process model is used to describe organizational business processes. An enterprise can benefit from using goal models to motivate the decisions when constructing process models. There are a number of comprehensive and accepted goal modelling languages, such as business motivation model, i*, and KAOS. The purpose of the paper is to compare these goal modelling languages in the context of business process engineering.

Aligning Goal and Value Models for Information System Design

The success of process-aware information systems and web services heavily depends on their ability to work as catalysts for the business values that are being exchanged in a business model. The motivation of a business model can be found in the goals of an enterprise which are made explicit in a goal model. From the IT perspective, goal and business models form part of a chain of models, ending with an information system model. Thereby, analyzing and establishing the alignment of business models with goal models is a starting task on the way to a business-aware information system. This paper discusses the alignment of value-based business models with system-oriented goal models. The result is a set of transformation rules between the two models. A case study from the health sector is used to argument the way we ground and apply our contribution.