=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1499/paper5
|storemode=property
|title=Communication with Models
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1499/paper5.pdf
|volume=Vol-1499
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/staf/Davidsen15
}}
==Communication with Models==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1499/paper5.pdf
Communication with Models
Jóhan Davidsen ?
Qualiware ApS,
Ryttermarken 15, Farum DK-3520, Denmark
Email: {johan.davidsen}@qualiware.com
Abstract. In enterprise modeling focus has been on capturing the right
level of information and how the models represent this information. This
paper purposes a project, which aims to look at the stakeholder and
their participation in the modeling process. The paper proposes a solu-
tion for how the stakeholders can be included in the process by drawing
inspiration from knowledge of visual conceptual models, knowledge from
industry modeling processes and digital interactive collaborative tech-
niques. The result is a collaborative framework or methodology, which
can make communication with models more flexible and engage a wider
audience in the creation and maintenance of conceptual models.
Keywords: Visual Aspects, Enterprise Modeling, Mobile Application,
Stakeholder participation
1 Background
One of the key tasks in Enterprise Architecture (EA) is to analyse the current
situation and existing challenges in the enterprise with the active participation of
domain experts and decision makers [12]. Two of the elicitation approaches used
in this phase are interviews and participatory modeling workshops [12]. After an
iteration of the aforementioned elicitation approaches, possibly in combination
with other approaches [12], modelers create conceptual models of the knowledge
captured [12]. The models are created using one or several different notations, e.g.
Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) [9], Unified Modeling Language
(UML), ArchiMate[8] and/or other frameworks, e.g. Architecture of Integrated
Information Systems (ARIS), Department of Defense Architecture Framework
(DoDAF). One of the fundamental attributes of the methods and/or frameworks
is the ability to circulate the captured knowledge back to the domain experts
and decision makers, such that they can evaluate and use the created models.
Enterprises operate in an ever-changing marketplace; this means that, if the
enterprises want to stay competitive, it is crucial that it rapidly responds to any
changes. Creating, changing and updating an different enterprise model can be a
challenging task, particularly as the number of stakeholders increases. The tasks
become even more complicated, if the stakeholders are in different departments
and/or subsidiaries. A third aspect, is that a change can be initiated by any of the
?
Copyright held by the author.
stakeholders, for which the model is relevant. This puts additional constraints
on the process, which is used to change and update a model.
2 State of the art
Conceptual modeling of organizations is not a new concept. 2 of the pioneers of
this topic were Young and Kent in 1958 [17,3]. Through the years, the topic has
matured in complexity and application. In the 90s, the focus seemed to change
from the question of the 80s: “What are we modeling?” to the questions: “Why
are we modeling and how are we modeling?”. Furthermore, the scope of the
conceptual models changed from relatively well defined applications into vaguely
defined conceptualized applications or organizations [3]. With the widened scope,
there emerged different approaches for modeling the enterprise architecture for
example: ARIS1 , DoDAF2 and Zachman3 .
Among the common assumptions for these frameworks, is the notion that en-
terprise modeling, to a certain extent, is a collaborative process among modeling
experts and stakeholders (domain experts and decision makers) [4,2]. Further-
more, they promote the idea of a single, consistent record of the enterprise model,
which should allow for multiple viewpoints [7]. The EA3 cube [2], which builds
on the Zachman framework, claims to be a holistic method to model the EA
in a current state and one or several potential future states. This single model
repository idea should improve the connection between the different conceptual
models and concequently contribute valuable understanding of the purpose and
usefulness of a model.
Visual conceptual models can be created by using a wide range of different
modeling notations. Different modeling notations are usually used in different
contexts: UML in computer science and BPMN is usually used to model business
processes. In sociology, a boundary object is a piece of information, ”which has
different meaning in different social worlds, but the structure is common enough
to more then one world to make them recognizable” [13]. Boundary objects can
be used to create understanding between different contexts [1]. Based on the
idea of boundary object, the question is how the current models and modeling
notations can be used to create boundary objects, which can facilitate contextual
information sharing across different knowledge domains. This should improve the
the coherency of the model repository and consequently the whole organization.
Another aspect, which will influence contextual information sharing is the
fact, that notations are different in their graphical construction and these con-
structions have an influence on how well, a model is understood by the stake-
holders [11,14,5]. Therefore, this aspect needs to be analyzed, if we are to create
conceptual models, which enhance cross-contextual communication.
Information sharing is considered an important approach to increasing or-
ganizational efficiency and performance [16]. With the advances in information
1
http://www.softwareag.com/corporate/products/aris alfabet/default.asp
2
http://dodcio.defense.gov/Portals/0/Documents/DODAF/DoDAF v2-02 web.pdf
3
https://www.zachman.com/about-the-zachman-framework
and communication technology, sharing information across organizations can be-
come even more effective. We have seen, how the internet has become a powerful
information sharing tool in software development [15]. The question is, how can
the internet and particularly mobile applications, support the usage of visual
conceptual models in contexts, where these haven’t been used before.
To summarize, the application space of conceptual models has continually
increased since the 80-ties, in context, scope and size. A number of different
frameworks have been proposed in order to manage and make the enterprise
architecture models actionable. Given the increased application space of con-
ceptual models and possibilities introduced by mobile devices, I will propose a
research project, which aims to use conceptual models for cross-contextual com-
munication. The rest of this paper is structured as follows: Section 3 describes
the problem I intend to address, section 4 describes the methodology, section 5
describes the expected contributions and sections 6 and 7 describe the current
status and the plan for the future.
3 Proposed Solution
Given the overview of enterprise modeling and visual conceptual models pre-
sented in section 2 and the background description in section 1. I conclude that,
this area presents considerable exploration opportunities. Furthermore, I envi-
sion that my solution will take the path of empirically founded research, which
will demonstrate and provide evidence for the stated claims.
The goal of this research project is to effectively and efficiently engage the
stakeholders and modelers in cross-organizational collaboration, such that the
organization can rapidly respond to any changes in the marketplace. I propose
that we position the visual conceptual model at the heart of the conversation,
such that the message is also the medium. I will elaborate with the following
question:
1. How can visual conceptual models be used to communicate changes in an
enterprise and how can all the relevant domain experts and decision makers
be included in the communication?
From section 2, responding to rapid changes in the enterprise through stake-
holder participation and using conceptual models to communicate the required
changes, has not been researched before. To explore the different aspects, I have
chosen to break, the overall question, down into the following sets of questions:
1. What are the main phases of a modeling process in a enterprise context?
(a) Which stakeholders are involved in each phase?
(b) What is their motivation?
(c) Which tools are used in the each phase?
2. What do we know about comprehension of visual conceptual models?
3. What do we know about collaborative creation of visual conceptual models?
First, we need to establish, what the different phases are in a modeling process
in a certain context, which stakeholders are involved, their motivation and which
tools they use. This is necessary, in order to establish an initial state or the
current state of affairs. Dialog with modelers, seems to indicate that there are 3
different phases: knowledge elicitation, model creation and circulation. I have not
been able to find any empirical evidence for this statement, therefore it would
be interesting to see, if this holds true.
Secondly, there are several different visual conceptual modeling languages,
e.g. UML, BPMN and Event-driven Process Chains (EPC). I have chosen to
base my focus on empirical studies regarding visual aspects of UML. The intent
is to identify the existing knowledge about visual aspects of UML models and
their correlation to human comprehension. This knowledge could be used as
a building block, when evaluating visual aspects and their influence on visual
conceptual model construction.
Enterprise modeling is a collaboration between modelers and stakeholders
(see section 2). The keyword is collaboration and this will add the third dimen-
sion to this research project. In [10], the author explores the topic of subject-
oriented business process modeling and how this can enable people to represent
their knowledge about their individual ways of performing parts of a cooperative
work process. This article provides and interesting insight into mental models
and their externalizations. In [15], the author examines the role of social media
artifacts in collaborative software development. The thesis defines the role of
social media artifacts as the timely dissemination of scenarios and concerns to a
diverse audience ... triggered by questions from users or articulation work. The
question is, can we draw inspiration from social media artifacts, subject-oriented
modeling techniques and boundary objects to enhance cross-enterprise commu-
nication with visual models, such that it improves stakeholder participation and
the quality and the relevance of the enterprise models?
4 Methodology
In order to evaluate and validate the outcome of this project, I plan to use a
empirical approach. The idea is to conduct an ethnographic study in a enterprise
setting, such that I can establish a initial state or more formally a null hypothesis.
In this study, I plan to observe, how models are created and continually updated
in an enterprise. The strength of this approach is that it gives very precise insights
into a certain context and population. A weakness is that the insight gained,
might be influenced by aspects, which are outside the scope of the research.
Nevertheless, the intent is to find a model of the process, which is used to create
conceptual model.
In order to establish a foundation regarding visual aspects of conceptual mod-
els and their correlation to human comprehension, I plan to conduct a Structured
Literature Review (SLR) on the empirical studies of visual aspect of UML mod-
els. This will provide the basis for me to explore, how visual aspects affect com-
munication with models. The strength of conducting a SLR is that the literature
is searched in a structured manner, which done properly could be repeated.
It is clear that in any collaboration, there are human factors, which affect the
collaboration paradigm [6]. It is therefore, important to consider and evaluate
factors, which can influence the communication with models. In particular, it is
important to identify any social factors, which could influence the participation
in collaboration. To identify and human factors, the plan is to conduct a quali-
tative interview study, with stakeholders involved in the ethnographic study.
Technical solutions, which could be used to enable cross-enterprise collabo-
ration; such as social networks [15], blogs[15], wikis [15] or digitally augmented
table-tops [10] is another area, which inspiration can be drawn from. The plan is
to develop a mobile application (phone or tablet) in order to evaluate different
collaboration approach. These approaches will draw inspiration from the before
mentioned social artifacts. The mobile application is expected to be a part of
the product portfolio of QualiWare ApS.
5 Expected Contributions
The expected contributions of this research project are the following:
1. A Structured Literature Review on empirical research of visual aspects of
UML models.
2. A case study, which studies the process of conceptual modeling in a given
context.
3. A study that focuses on the visual aspects, which affect
comprehension/understanding of conceptual models.
4. A study that focuses on which stakeholder aspects, which can influence par-
ticipation in conceptual model creation.
5. A framework for creation and maintenance of conceptual models in a dis-
tributed environment.
6. A mobile application, which implements the framework in 5.
The contributions above have relevance in different fields. The SLR has relevance
in the UML and empirical research communities in computer science. A study
on how conceptual models are created in industry, could provide an interesting
insight in a wide range of different conceptual modeling communities; e.g BPMN
and EA. An study into, which aspects can influence stakeholders participation
in a modeling process can provide profound insight, for the development of a col-
laborative framework and also a base for the evaluation of the same framework.
The framework aims to answer the overarching question of this thesis and as
such its focus is on the aspects, which motivate and engage stakeholder partic-
ipation in the collaborative creation of visual conceptual models and providing
the functionality for updating and continually evaluating the created models.
The mobile application is the concrete instantiation of the framework and is
intended to empirically evaluate it.
The insight gained form this research project could potentially contribute to
a wide range of different modeling communities, because the question of this the-
sis can be applied to software development, information systems and obviously
enterprise modeling.
6 Current status
The emphasis of this project has, up until this point, been 2 different activities.
The first activity is an SLR. The SLR aims to identify, which visual aspects of
UML models have been evaluated empirically, in addition to the identification,
the SLR aims to collect and map the results from the different studies. This
should result in a condense overview of the empirical studies, which have been
conducted and also identify areas, that could be explored further. The SLR
will also provide valuable insight into, which visual aspects could influence the
understanding and communication with visual models.
The second activity has been the development of a mobile application with
the primary functionality of showing stakeholders the conceptual models, which
address their concerns. The application also provides functionality, such that
the stakeholder can provide feedback and/or request a change to be made to a
given visual model. The first version of the application was demonstrated in a
industrial conference hosted by QualiWare on the 05 - 06.05.2015.
7 Future
The table 7 shows the current time-line for this project. The time line is split up
in to half-year periods where the major focus points of that period are described.
The focus of the time-line are the research activities, which are planned in that
half-year. Industrial and academic commitments such as courses and other ac-
tivities are not considered. At this early stage of the project the time-line is
subject to possible changes.
Half-year Project outline
Started working on SLR with the aim of a publication in
Spring 2015. Develop a mobile application, with the aim of a
Autumn 2014 demonstration in Spring 2015. Conduct interviews with enterprise
modelers in order to gain familiarity with the industry, possibly use
the interviews as a pilot study.
Finish SLR and prepare mobile application for industry conference
Spring 2015 hosted by QualiWare. Prepare for ethnographic study and establish
industry contacts, possibly inside the MADE research project.
Conduct ethnographic study and present observations in an article.
Autumn 2015 Explore digital interactive collaboration techniques and evaluate
their usefulness in an enterprise setting.
Research stay at foreign university with an interest in digital
Spring 2016
interactive collaboration.
Synthesising research results from SLR, the ethnographic study and
the digiral interactive collaboration in to a framework or method.
Automn 2016
This can then be empirically evaluated in an industry setting and
possibly contrasting to an academic or other industry setting.
Spring 2017 Writing thesis and further empirical evaluation.
Spring 2017 Writing and submitting thesis.
Table 1. Project time-line
References
1. Beth A. Bechky. Sharing Meaning Across Occupational Communities: The Trans-
formation of Understanding on a Production Floor, 2003.
2. Scott A Bernard. An Introduction to Enterprise Architecture. AuthorHouse, 2012.
3. Janis A Bubenko jr. From Information Algebra to Enterprise Modelling and On-
tologies a Historical Perspective on Modelling for Information Systems. Conceptual
Modelling in Information Systems Engineering, pages 1 – 18, 2007.
4. Rob Davis. Buisness Process Modelling with ARIS. Springer-Verlag London Berlin
Heidelberg, 2001.
5. Andrea De Lucia, Carmine Gravino, Rocco Oliveto, and Genoveffa Tortora. Data
Model Comprehension: An Empirical Comparison of ER and UML Class Diagrams.
In 2008 16th IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension, pages
93–102. IEEE, June 2008.
6. Robert .R Hoffman. Human factors contributions to knowledge elicitation. Human
Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors, 50(3):481–488, 2008.
7. International Organization of Standardization. ISO/IEC 42010, 2012.
8. OMG. ArchiMate. http://www.opengroup.org/subjectareas/enterprise/archimate,
2015.
9. OMG. Business Process Model and Notation. http://www.bpmn.org/, 2015.
10. Stefan Oppl. Subject-oriented elicitation of distributed business process knowledge.
Communications in Computer and Information Science, 213 CCIS:16–33, 2011.
11. Helen C Purchase, Linda Colpoys, Matthew McGill, and David Carrington. UML
collaboration diagram syntax: an empirical study of comprehension. In Proceed-
ings First International Workshop on Visualizing Software for Understanding and
Analysis, pages 13–22. IEEE Comput. Soc, 2002.
12. Kurt Sandkuhl, Janis Stirna, Anne Persson, and Matthias Wiß otzki. Elicitation
Approaches in Enterprise Modeling. In Enterprise Modeling, pages 39–51. Springer
Berlin Heidelberg, 2014.
13. Susan Leigh Star and James R. Griesemer. Institutional Ecology, ’Translations’
and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley’s Museum of Ver-
tebrate Zoology, 1907-39. Social Studies of Science, 19(3):387–420, 1989.
14. Harald Storrle. On the impact of layout quality to understanding UML diagrams.
In 2011 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing
(VL/HCC), pages 135–142. IEEE, September 2011.
15. Christoph Treude. The Role of Social Media Artifacts in Collaborative Software
Development. Dissertation, University of Siegen, 2012.
16. Tung Mou Yang and Terrence A. Maxwell. Information-sharing in public or-
ganizations: A literature review of interpersonal, intra-organizational and inter-
organizational success factors. Government Information Quarterly, 28(2):164–175,
2011.
17. John W Young and Henry K Kent. Abstract Formulation of Data Processing
Problems. In ACM ’58 Preprints of papers presented at the 13th national meeting
of the Association for Computing Machinery, pages 1–4, 1958.