Using a Model Quality Framework for Requirements Specification of an Enterprise Modeling Language

Abstract

As more and more modern modeling tools provide the possibility of developing specialized and new modeling languages (also called meta modeling or method engineering), the need for methodologies and guidelines to perform requirements specification in the development and evolution of these languages increases. Based on work on quality of models and modeling languages, we have defined a methodology to attack this problem, taking as an outset the goals of modeling, modeling tasks, and related roles involved in model development and model interpretation. This chapter presents the application of this methodology for selection and refinement of a modeling language for a process harmonization project in an international organization. The harmonization project uses process models as the basis for developing a support environment for the new harmonized process. The process models were used for many different tasks, and it proved to be very beneficial to structure the modeling language requirements specification process to be able to prioritize what was to be implemented in the specialized language.