Extending the scope of information modelling

Traditional infonnation modelling methods and techniques have mainly been concerned with promoting various representation formalisms far formally describing information systems, and discussing the expressive power of thern. In this talle we take another o:-ack. Inforrnation systems and their formal descriptions exist for sorne reason. Entities, relationships and rules are defined because there is sorne need and rationale behind it. The problern here is to bridge the gap between ill-defined problem and application situations and specificat:i.on of the formal, precise definition of functional requirements of the informat:i.on system. This gap is wide and spans different "cultures" of thought and scientific inquiry in the field of compu ting and infonnation science. In this paper I outline an extended requirements and information modelling paradigm, based on "enterprise rnodelling", i.e. the capture, negotiations about, and specification of business objectives, concepts, rules activities and actors. This paradigm brings up a nurnber of new problems and issues of scientific inquiry, whicb augrnent the traditional approach and brings it closer to problerns experienced in real-life system development and rnaintenance projects