Insights into enterprise conceptual modeling

Business analysts, business architects, and solution consultants use a variety of practices and methods in their quest to understand business. The resulting work products often end up being transitioned into the formal world of software requirement definitions or as recommendations for all kinds of business activities. We describe an empirical study about the nature of these methods, diagrams, and home grown conceptual models as reflected in real practice at IBM. We identify the models as artifacts of “enterprise conceptual modeling”. We study important features of these models, suggest practical classifications and characterizations, and distinguish them from drawings. Specifically we look into context, type, methods and complexity to determine enterprise conceptual models usage. Our survey shows that the “enterprise conceptual modeling” arena presents a variety of descriptive models, each used by a relatively small group of colleagues. Together they form a spectrum that extends from “drawings” on one end to “standards” on the other.