Environment support for business modelling : concepts, architecture and implementation

The goal of business modelling is the design, analysis, and simulation of an enterprise's architectural structures and their information technology components. To comprehensively support business modelling, an appropriate modelling environment with adequate visualization mechanisms is required. Such an environment may handle model information in a flexible, yet expressive way and support substitution, documentation, validation and dynamic analysis of models as well as model visualization and alternative representations.We have developed a business modelling approach which is based on the formalism of extended, colored Petri nets. To support and validate our approach, we have engineered the Macrotec environment. Macrotec meets a list of requirements we have identified as crucial for the quality of a comprehensive modelling environment. It is conceived as a set of various tools which are seamlessly integrated. Our experience with Macrotec suggests that our concepts and environment substantially facilitate business modelling