Based on service orientation, a crucial design decision for the behavioral part of our metamodel is the distinction between “external” and “internal” behavior of an organization.

The externally visible behavior is modeled by the concept business service. A business service represents a coherent piece of functionality that offers added value to the environment, independent of the way this functionality is realized internally. A distinction can be made between “external” business services, offered to external customers, and “internal” business services, offering supporting functionality to processes or functions within the organization.

Several types of internal behavior elements that can realize a service are distinguished. Although the distinction between the two is not always sharp, it is often useful to distinguish a process view and a function view on behavior; two concepts associated with these views, business process and business function, are defined. Both concepts can be used to group more detailed business processes/functions, but based on different grouping criteria. A business process represents a workflow or value stream consisting of smaller processes/functions, with one or more clear starting points and leading to some result. It is sometimes described as “customer to customer”, where this customer may also be an internal customer, in the case of sub-processes within an organization. The goal of such a business process is to “satisfy or delight the customer” [14]. A business function offers functionality that may be useful for one or more business processes. It groups behavior based on, for example, required skills, capabilities, resources, (application) support, etc. Other methods sometimes call this a business capability. Typically, the business processes of an organization are defined based on the products and services that the organization offers, while the business functions are the basis for, for example, the assignment of resources to tasks and the application support.

A business interaction is a unit of behavior similar to a business process or function, but which is performed in a collaboration of two or more roles within the organization. Unlike the interaction concept in Amber [13], which is an atomic unit of collaborative behavior, our business interaction can be decomposed into smaller interactions. Although interactions are external behavior from the perspective of the roles participating in the collaboration, the behavior is internal to the collaboration as a whole. Similar to processes or functions, the result of a business interaction can be made available to the environment through a business service.

A business event is something that happens (externally) and may influence business processes, functions, or interactions. The “business event” concept is similar to the “trigger” concept in Amber [13] and the “initial state” and “final state” concepts as used in, for example, UML activity diagrams. How­ever, our business event is more generally applicable in the sense that it can also be used to model other types of events, in addition to triggers.

Business Process

A business process describes the internal behavior performed by a business role that is required to produce a set of products and services. For a consumer the products and services are relevant and the required behavior is merely a black box, hence the designation “internal”.

In comparison to a business interaction, in which more than two business roles are (interactively) involved, only one business role is involved with a business process. However, a (complex) business process may consist of sub-processes assigned to different business roles.

There is a potential many-to-many relation between business processes and business functions. Informally speaking, processes describe some kind of “flow” of activities, whereas functions group activities according to required skills, knowledge, resources, etc.

A business process may be triggered by, or trigger, any other business behavior element (e.g., business event, business process, business function, or business interaction). A business process may access business objects. A business process may realize one or more business services and may use (internal) business services or application services. A business role or an application component may be assigned to a business process to perform this process manually or automated, respectively. The name of a business process should preferably be a verb in the simple present tense; e.g., “handle claim”.

Figure 12: Business Process Notation

Example

Example 6: Business Process

Business Function

A business function describes internal behavior performed by a business role that is required to produce a set of products and services. For a consumer, the products and services are relevant and the required behavior is merely a black box, hence the designation “internal”.

There is a potential many-to-many relation between business processes and business functions. Informally speaking, processes describe some kind of “flow” of activities, whereas functions group activities according to required skills, knowledge, resources etc. Complex processes in general involve activities that offer various functions. In this sense a business process forms a string of business functions. In general, a business function delivers added value from a business point of view. Organizational units or applications may coincide with business functions due to their specific grouping of business activities.

A business function may be triggered by, or trigger, any other business behavior element (business event, business process, business function, or business interaction). A business function may access business objects. A business function may realize one or more business services and may use (internal) business services or application services. A business role or an application component may be assigned to a business function. The name of a business function should preferably be a verb ending with “-ing”; e.g., “claims processing”.

Figure 13: Business Function Notation

Example

Example 7: Business Function

Business Interaction

A business interaction is similar to a business process/function, but while a process/function may be performed by a single role, an interaction is performed by multiple roles in collaboration.

A business interaction may be triggered by, or trigger, any other business behavior element (business event, business process, business function, or business interaction). A business interaction may access business objects. A business interaction may realize one or more business services and may use (internal) business services or application services. A business collaboration or an application collaboration may be assigned to a business interaction. The name of a business interaction should preferably be a verb in the simple present tense.

Figure 14: Business Interaction Notation

Example

Example 8: Business Interaction

Business Event

Business processes and other business behavior may be triggered or interrupted by a business event. Also, business processes may raise events that trigger other business processes, functions, or interactions. A business event is most commonly used to model something that triggers behavior, but other types of events are also conceivable; e.g., an event that interrupts a process. Unlike business processes, functions, and interactions, a business event is instantaneous: it does not have duration. Events may originate from the environment of the organization (e.g., from a customer), but also internal events may occur generated by, for example, other processes within the organization.

A business event may trigger or be triggered (raised) by a business process, business function, or business interaction. A business event may access a business object and may be composed of other business events. The name of a business event should preferably be a verb in the perfect tense; e.g., “claim received”.

Figure 15: Business Event Notation

Example

Example 9: Business Event

Business Service

A business service exposes the functionality of business roles or collaborations to their environment. This functionality is accessed through one or more business interfaces. A business service is realized by one or more business processes, business functions, or business interactions that are performed by the business roles or business collaborations, respectively. It may access business objects.

A business service should provide a unit of functionality that is meaningful from the point of view of the environment. It has a purpose, which states this utility. The environment includes the (behavior of) users from outside as well as inside the organization.

A business service is associated with a value. A business service may be used by a business process, business function, or business interaction. A business process, business function, or business interaction may realize a business service. A business interface or application interface may be assigned to a business service. A business service may access business objects. The name of a business service should preferably be a verb ending with ­“?ing”; e.g., “transaction processing”. Also, a name explicitly containing the word “service” may be used.

Figure 16: Business Service Notation

Example

Example 10: Business Service

In contrast to the structural and behavioral concepts, which are mainly concerned with the operational perspective on an enterprise, the informational concepts focus on what we could call the “intentional” perspective. They provide a way to link the operational side of an organization to the business goals, and to the products that an organization offers to its customers. We also classify the product concept itself, together with the related contract concept, as informational concepts.

Information is fundamentally related to communication. Information always serves a particular purpose, which is tightly connected to some communicational goal. As communication always involves a static part (the “message”) and a dynamic part (the communication action itself), the communicational goals may have a link to both our “meaning” concept and our “value” concept. Also, in speech act-based approaches to business modeling, such as DEMO [10], the communicational aspect plays a central role in the context of business transactions.

A representation is the perceptible form of the information carried by a business object, such as a document. As such, it can be seen as the realization of the associated business object. If relevant, representations can be classified in various ways; for example, in terms of medium (e.g., electronic, paper, audio) or format (e.g., HTML, PDF, plain text, bar chart).

A meaning is the contribution of the representation of a business object to the knowledge or expertise of some actor, given a particular context. In other words, meaning represents the informative value of a business object for a user of such an object. It is through a certain interpretation of a representation of the object that meaning is being offered to a certain user or to a certain category of users. A meaning can very well be a reformulation or transformation of parts of the object representation in such a way that the role of the meaning is immediately clear within the user's world, but essentially lies in interpretation by individuals, in context.

For the complete description of a meaning, the following two elements are needed, in addition to the representations (and, indirectly, business objects) with which the meaning is associated:

         Some sort of meaning description: A meaning description is not equal to the representation causing the meaning: it is a specialized description that aims to clarify or stipulate a meaning. Natural language may be used for this, but also formal languages or diagrams. Typical examples of meaning descriptions are definitions, ontologies, paraphrases, subject descriptions, and tables of content. Meaning descriptions may draw from or refer to additional meaning description sources; for example, dictionaries. Importantly, meaning descriptions do not necessarily have to describe meaning in detail. The level of detail depends on the types of analysis required. It is quite possible that a very rough meaning description is good enough to capture at architecture level the sort of interpretations a business object conveys. Detailed meaning description can only in a limited number of cases be made very precise; in most cases, interpretation depends on the general language and knowledge of specific actors, which normally remains largely implicit.

         A description of the context(s) in which the meaning is conveyed: A context description covers the situation in which the interpretation takes place. The most important elements of such a context are the actors sending and receiving the business object, the time and place of communication and the environment in which this happens. Often, a context can be briefly described in terms of some business domain.

We see a (financial or information) product as of a collection of services, together with a contract that specifies the characteristics, rights, and requirements associated with the product. This “package” is offered as a whole to (internal or external) customers.

We define a contract as a formal or informal specification of agreement that specifies the rights and obligations associated with a product. The value of a product or service is that which makes some party appreciate it, possibly in relation to providing it, but more typically to acquiring it.

Representation

Representations (for example, messages or documents) are the perceptible carriers of information that are related to business objects. If relevant, representations can be classified in various ways; for example, in terms of medium (electronic, paper, audio, etc.) or format (HTML, ASCII, PFD, RTF, etc.). A single business object can have a number of different representations, but a representation always belongs to one specific business object.

A representation may realize one or more business objects. A meaning can be associated with a representation that carries this meaning. The name of a representation is preferably a noun.

Figure 17: Representation Notation

Example

Example 11: Representation

Meaning

A meaning is the representation-related counterpart of a value: it represents the functionality of a representation (for example, a document, message; the representations related to a business object). It is a description that expresses the intent of a representation; i.e., how it informs the external user.

It is possible that different users view the informative functionality of a representation differently. For example, what may be a “registration confirmation” for a client could be a “client mutation” for a CRM department (assuming for the sake of argument that it is modeled as an external user). Also, various different representations may carry essentially the same meaning. For example, various different documents (a web document, a filled-in paper form, a “client contact” report from the call center) may essentially carry the same meaning.

A meaning can be associated with a representation that carries this meaning. The name of a meaning should preferably be a noun or noun phrase.

Figure 18: Meaning Notation

Example

Example 12: Meaning

Value

Value may apply to what a party gets by selling or making available some product or service, or it may apply to what a party gets by buying or obtaining access to it. Value is often expressed in terms of money, but it has long since been recognized that non-monetary value is also essential to business; for example, practical/functional value (including the right to use a service), and the value of information or knowledge. Though value can hold internally for some system or organizational unit, it is most typically applied to external appreciation of goods, services, information, knowledge, or money, normally as part of some sort of customer-provider relationship.

A value can be associated with business services and, indirectly, with the products they are part of, and the roles or actors that use them. Although the name of a value can be expressed in many different ways (including amounts, objects), where the “functional” value of a service is concerned it is recommended to try and express it as an action or state that can be performed or reached as a result of the corresponding service being available.

Figure 19: Value Notation

Example

Example 13: Value

Product

A (financial or information) product consists of a collection of services, and a contract that specifies the characteristics, rights, and requirements associated with the product. “Buying” a product gives the customer the right to use the associated services. Generally, the product concept is used to specify a product type. The number of product types in an organization is typically relatively stable compared to, for example, the processes that realize or support the products. “Buying” is usually one of the services associated with a product, which results in a new instance of that product (belonging to a specific customer). Similarly, there may be services to modify or destroy a product.

A product may aggregate business services or application services, as well as a contract. A value may be associated with a product. The name of a product is usually the name which is used in the communication with customers, or possibly a more generic noun (e.g., “travel insurance”).

Figure 20: Product Notation

Example

Example 14: Product

Contract

The contract concept may be used to model a contract in the legal sense, but also a more informal agreement associated with a product. It may also be or include a Service Level Agreement (SLA), describing an agreement about the functionality and quality of the services that are part of a product. A contract is a specialization of a business object.

The relationships that apply to a business object also apply to a contract. In addition, a contract may have an aggregation relationship with a product. The name of a contract is preferably a noun.

Figure 21: Contract Notation

Example

Example 15: Contract