Enterprise Ontology Driven Software Generation
Jan L. G. Dietz
Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
Abstract: Model Driven Engineering has been with us for quite some time, the most well known approach being
OMG’s Model Driven Architecture. However, although it has brought substantial benefits compared to
other software engineering approaches, Model Driven Engineering presently still suffers from two major
shortages. First, it is unable to deliver domain models from which the correct functional requirements can be
derived. Hence, true validation is hardly possible: the software does not meet user expectations. Second, the
models to be produced during the system development process, are not formally defined. Hence, their
verification remains a cumbersome task. One of the theoretical pillars of Enterprise Engineering (EE) is the
Generic System Development Process. It distinguishes between the using system and the object system (the
system to be built), and it states that any software development process should start from the ontological
construction model of the using system. In addition, EE’s systemic notion of Enterprise Ontology offers a
formalized ontological model of an enterprise that satisfies the C4E quality criteria (coherent, consistent,
comprehensive, concise, and essential). An operational application software generator will be presented that
takes this ontological model, with some extensions, as source code input and executes the model as a
professional software application. Changes in the software, as required by any agile enterprise, are brought
about ‘on the fly’, through re-generation, based on the modified ontological model of the enterprise.
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
Jan L.G. Dietz is emeritus full professor in
Information Systems Design at Delft University of
Technology, full professor in Enterprise Engineering
at Delft University of Technology, and director of
Sapio (www.sapio.nl). He holds a Master degree in
Electrical Engineering and a Doctoral degree in
Computer Science. He has published over 200
scientific and professional articles and books. His
current research interests are in the emerging
discipline of Enterprise Engineering, of which
Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Ontology, and
Enterprise Governance are the major pillars. Before
his academic career, he has practiced application
software engineering for ten years in industry. Jan
Dietz is the spiritual father of DEMO (Design &
Engineering Methodology for Organizations), and
honorary chairman of the Enterprise Engineering
Institute (www.ee-institute.com). For the
development of Enterprise Engineering, he chairs
the international research network CIAO!
(www.ciaonetwork.org). He also acts as editor-in-
chief of a book series on Enterprise Engineering,
published by Springer. For more information, visit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Dietz.
3
Dietz J.
Enterprise Ontology Driven Software Generation.
DOI: 10.5220/0004462500030003
In Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Business Modeling and Software Design (BMSD 2012), page 3
ISBN: 978-989-8565-26-6
Copyright
c
 2012 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

Second International Symposium on Business Modeling and Software Design
4