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Design & Engineering Methodology for Organizations (DEMO) is an enterprise modelling methodology for transaction modelling, and analysing and representing business processes. It is developed since the 1980s by Jan Dietz and others, and is inspired by the language/action perspective [1]
DEMO is a methodology for designing, organizing and linking organizations. Central concept is the "communicative action": communication is considered essential for the functioning of organizations. Agreements between employees, customers and suppliers are indeed created to communicate. The same is true for the acceptance of the results supplied. [2]
The DEMO methodology is based on the following principles: [3]
The DEMO methodology provides a coherent understanding of communication, information, action and organization. The scope is here shifted from "Information Systems Engineering" to "Business Systems Engineering", with a clear understanding of both the information and the central organizations. [3]
The DEMO methodology is inspired on the language/action perspective, which was initially developed as a philosophy of language by J. L. Austin, John Searle and Jürgen Habermas and was built on the speech act theory. The language/action perspective was introduced in the field of computer science and information systems design by Fernando Flores and Terry Winograd in the 1980s. [4] According to Dignum and Dietz (1997) this concept has "proven to be a new basic paradigm for Information Systems Design. In contrast to traditional views of data flow, the language/action perspective emphasizes what people do while communicating, how they create a common reality by means of language, and how communication brings about a coordination of their activities." [5]
DEMO is developed at the Delft University of Technology by Jan Dietz in the early 1990s, and originally stood for "Dynamic Essential Modelling of Organizations". It builds on the Language Action Perspective (LAP), which is derived from the work include John Austin, John Searle and Jürgen Habermas since the 1960s. It is linked to the "Natural language Information Analysis Method" (NIAM) developed by Shir Nijssen, [6] and object-role modeling (ORM) [7] further developed by Terry Halpin.
In the 1990s the name was changed to "Design & Engineering Methodology for Organizations". In the new millennium Jan Dietz further elaborated DEMO into "enterprise ontology", in which the graphic note of object-role modeling is integrated. [8] These concepts were also developed by Dietz and others into a framework for enterprise architecture, entitled Architecture Framework (XAF). [9] In the new millennium the French company Sogeti developed a methodology based on the DEMO, called Pronto. The further development of DEMO is supported by the international Enterprise Engineering Institute, based in Delft in The Netherlands. [10]
In DEMO the basic pattern of a business transaction is composed of the following three phases: [11]
Basic transactions can be composed to account for complex transactions. The DEMO methodology gives the analyst an understanding of the business processes of the organization, as well as the agents involved, but is less clear about pragmatics aspects of the transaction, such as the conversation structure and the intentions generated in each agents mind. [11]
DEMO assumes that an organization consists of three integrated layers: [12] [13]
The B-organization or business layer according to DEMO is the essence of the organization, regardless of the device is possible there. Understanding the business layer is the right starting point in setting up an organization, including the software to support business processes.
This vision leads to a division into three perspectives or levels of abstraction: [3]
At each level has its own category of systems at that level "active": there are so B systems (of company and business), I-systems (of informational and information) and D systems (from documenteel and data) . The main focus in DEMO is focused on the critical level, the other two are, therefore, less discussed in detail. [3]
The ontological model of an organisation in DEMO-3 consists of the integrated whole of four aspect models, each taking a specific view on the organisation:
There are two ways of representing these aspect models: graphically, in diagrams and tables, and textually, in DEMOSL.
Construction Model The Construction Model (CM) of an organisation is the ontological model of its construction: the composition (the internal actor roles, i.e. the actor roles within the border of the organisation), the environment (i.e. the actor roles outside the border of the organisation that have interaction with internal actor roles), the interaction structure (i.e. the transaction kinds between the actor roles in the composition, and between these and the actor roles in the environment), and the interstriction structure (i.e. the information links from actor roles in the composition to internal transaction kinds and to external transaction kinds).
The CM of an organisation is represented in an Organisation Construction Diagram (OCD), a Transaction Product Table (TPT), and a Bank Contents Table (BCT).
Process Model The Process Model (PM) of an organisation is the ontological model of the state space and the transition space of its coordination world. Regarding the state space, the PM contains, for all internal and border transaction kinds, the process steps and the existence laws that apply, according to the complete transaction pattern. Regarding the transition space, the PM contains the coordination event kinds as well as the applicable occurrence laws, including the cardinalities of the occurrences. The occurrence laws within a transaction process are fully determined by the complete transaction pattern. Therefore, a PSD contains only the occurrence laws between transaction processes, expressed in links between process steps. There are two kinds: response links and waiting links.
A PM is represented in a Process Structure Diagram (PSD), and a Transaction Pattern Diagram (TPD) for each transaction kind. In these diagrams it is indicated which ‘exceptions’ will be dealt with.
Action Model The Action Model (AM) of an organisation consists of a set of action rules. There is an action rule for every agendum kind for every internal actor role. The agendum kinds are determined by the TPDs of the identified transaction kinds (see PM). An action rule consists of an event part (the event(s) to respond to), an assess part (the facts to be inspected), and a response part (the act(s) to be performed.
An AM is represented in Action Rule Specifications (ARS) and Work Instruction Specifications (WIS).
Fact Model The Fact Model (FM) of an organisation is the ontological model of the state space and the transition space of its production world. Regarding the state space, the FM contains all identified fact kinds (both declared and derived), and the existence laws. Three kinds of existence laws are specified graphically: reference laws, unicity laws, and dependency laws; the other ones are specified textually. Regarding the transition space, the FM contains the production event kinds (results of transactions) as well as the applicable occurrence laws. The transition space of the production world is completely determined by the transition space of its coordination world. Yet it may be illustrative to show the implied occurrence laws in an OFD.
The FM is represented in an Object Fact Diagram (OFD), possibly complemented by Derived Fact Specifications and Existence Law Specifications.
Somebody starts a communication with a request to ensure that someone else creates a desired result. The person responsible for the results, can respond with a promise, and, when work was done (the execution has taken place), can state that the desired result is achieved. If this result is accepted by the person who had asked for the result then this is a fact. The pattern described in the communication between two people is called a DEMO transaction. A chain of transactions is called in DEMO a business process.
The result of a transaction can be specified in DEMO as a facttype, using object-role modeling ( ORM ).
The Dutch company Essmod the "Essential Business Modeler" tool developed based on DEMO, which was acquired in 2008 by Mprise after which it renamed to Xemod.[ citation needed ]
DEMO is also supported in the open source world with the architecture tool Open Modeling.[ citation needed ] There is also a free online modeling tool Model for World DEMO which can be in an online repository. Multiuser worked This tool is platform-independent in a web browser without downloading or installing software.[ citation needed ]
A modeling language is any artificial language that can be used to express data, information or knowledge or systems in a structure that is defined by a consistent set of rules. The rules are used for interpretation of the meaning of components in the structure of a programing language.
IDEF, initially an abbreviation of ICAM Definition and renamed in 1999 as Integration Definition, is a family of modeling languages in the field of systems and software engineering. They cover a wide range of uses from functional modeling to data, simulation, object-oriented analysis and design, and knowledge acquisition. These definition languages were developed under funding from U.S. Air Force and, although still most commonly used by them and other military and United States Department of Defense (DoD) agencies, are in the public domain.
An entity–relationship model describes interrelated things of interest in a specific domain of knowledge. A basic ER model is composed of entity types and specifies relationships that can exist between entities.
Data modeling in software engineering is the process of creating a data model for an information system by applying certain formal techniques. It may be applied as part of broader Model-driven engineering (MDE) concept.
Enterprise integration is a technical field of enterprise architecture, which is focused on the study of topics such as system interconnection, electronic data interchange, product data exchange and distributed computing environments.
An information model in software engineering is a representation of concepts and the relationships, constraints, rules, and operations to specify data semantics for a chosen domain of discourse. Typically it specifies relations between kinds of things, but may also include relations with individual things. It can provide sharable, stable, and organized structure of information requirements or knowledge for the domain context.
Decomposition in computer science, also known as factoring, is breaking a complex problem or system into parts that are easier to conceive, understand, program, and maintain.
Enterprise modelling is the abstract representation, description and definition of the structure, processes, information and resources of an identifiable business, government body, or other large organization.
Jean Leonardus Gerardus (Jan) Dietz is a Dutch Information Systems researcher, Professor Emeritus of Information Systems Design at the Delft University of Technology, known for the development of the Design & Engineering Methodology for Organisations. and his work on Enterprise Engineering.
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Business systems planning (BSP) is a method of analyzing, defining and designing the information architecture of organizations. It was introduced by IBM for internal use only in 1981, although initial work on BSP began during the early 1970s. BSP was later sold to organizations. It is a complex method dealing with interconnected data, processes, strategies, aims and organizational departments.
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In philosophy, a process ontology refers to a universal model of the structure of the world as an ordered wholeness. Such ontologies are fundamental ontologies, in contrast to the so-called applied ontologies. Fundamental ontologies do not claim to be accessible to any empirical proof in itself but to be a structural design pattern, out of which empirical phenomena can be explained and put together consistently. Throughout Western history, the dominating fundamental ontology is the so-called substance theory. However, fundamental process ontologies have become more important in recent times, because the progress in the discovery of the foundations of physics has spurred the development of a basic concept able to integrate such boundary notions as "energy," "object", and those of the physical dimensions of space and time.
Mark Stephen Fox is a Canadian computer scientist, Professor of Industrial Engineering and Distinguished Professor of Urban Systems Engineering at the University of Toronto, known for the development of Constraint Directed Scheduling in the 1980s and the TOVE Project to develop an ontological framework for enterprise modeling and enterprise integration in the 1990s.
Junichi Iijima, Japanese, Enterprise Engineer and Professor of the Department of Industrial Management and Engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan.
Johannes Adrianus Petrus (Jan) Hoogervorst is a Dutch organizational theorist, business executive, management consultant, and Professor Enterprise Governance and Enterprise Engineering at the University of Antwerp, known for his work in the field of enterprise engineering.
J.B.F. (Hans) Mulder is a Dutch computer scientist, Venture manager in the IT industry, and Professor at the University of Antwerp, known for his work on enterprise engineering.
Martinus (Martin) Op 't Land is a Dutch organizational theorist, consultant and Professor of Enterprise Engineering at the University of Antwerp and at Antwerp Management School, known for his contributions in the field of Enterprise Architecture.
Jan Verelst is a Belgian computer scientist, Professor and Dean of the Department of Management Information Systems at the University of Antwerp, and Professor at the Antwerp Management School, known for his work on Normalized Systems.