An Introduction to the Business Ontology

Abstract

Based on the long-standing work of the Global University Alliance and its members, ontology is introduced for the business domain. This ‘business ontology' incorporates all the constructs that can be found in the most popular business standards and frameworks. The business ontology's research and development journey is detailed; in terms of the how the research and findings came about, including the underlying academic design science that is informed by practitioners' industrial experiences. It explains the value of ontology, from which the need for the business ontology can be justified and gives it presence in business practice. The paper concludes with a discussion on the ontology's present status and future potential.

Towards Consistent Demarcation of Enterprise Design Domains

“…In accordance with Gregor & Hevner's [18] knowledge contribution framework, the model can be considered as an improvement, since a new solution (model of constructs for representing enterprise design domains) is developed for solving a known problem. Referring to the DSR steps of Peffers et al [19], this article focuses on the first four steps of the DSR cycle as follows: Identify a problem: Sections 2 stated that current enterprise design approaches vary in how they define different enterprise design domains/levels [4] and there is a lack of standardised terms, definitions, semantic rules and concepts to define the design domains [9]. The Open Group [20] for instance defines four design domains (business, application, data and technology), whereas Hoogervorst [5] defines different design domains (business, organisation, information and technology).…”

“…Prior to governing its evolution, the enterprise design team needs to define those aspects or design domains that need to be governed. Yet, current enterprise design approaches vary in how they de-fine different enterprise design domains/levels [4] and there is a lack of standardised terms, definitions, semantic rules and concepts to define the design domains [9]. This article explores the suggestion to use the basic system design process to demarcate four main enterprise design domains in a more consistent and comprehensive way.…”

Developments and Trends in Intelligent Technologies and Smart Systems

“…Figure 2's Layered Enterprise way of working was developed by Zachman and the Global University Alliance (GUA), as mentioned earlier. and fathered the Business Ontology (von Rosing & Laurier, 2015). The practitioners' enterprise standard body LEADing Practice 2 has embodied this work as the Layered Enterprise Architecture Development (LEAD) (von Rosing & von Scheel, 2016).…”

“…Computer science has over its history contributed to the expressibility in these meta-models through its advances in ontology and semantics; together they capture the objects and relations that describe the interplay and effects of business in a formal, computable model (Floyd, 1967;Gruber, 1995;Oberle, 2013;von Rosing and Laurier, 2015). Computer productivity is thus brought to bear on the creativity of human endeavour, which identifies and sustains enterprise opportunities.…”

Modularising the Complex Meta-Models in Enterprise Systems Using Conceptual Structures

“…Computer science has over its history contributed to the expressibility in these meta-models through its advances in ontology and semantics; together they capture the objects and relations that describe the interplay and effects of business in a formal, computable model (Floyd, 1967;Gruber, 1995;Oberle, 2013;von Rosing and Laurier, 2015). Computer productivity is thus brought to bear on the creativity of human endeavour, which identifies and sustains enterprise opportunities.…”