A new paradigm for the continuous alignment of business and IT: Combining enterprise architecture modelling and enterprise ontology

• We propose a new paradigm for next generation enterprise information systems for the continuous alignment of business and IT for the agile enterprise.
• The metamodelling approach supports both human-interpretable enterprise architecture models and machine-interpretable enterprise ontologies.
• Semantic lifting transforms metamodels for the enterprise architectures into machine-interpretable enterprise ontologies.
• Semantic metamodels express the semantics of all modelling concepts by an ontology. The ontology is extended by a metamodel, which defines the notation and syntax of the graphical modelling language.
• Examples of next generation enterprise information systems are described, which embed modelling tools and algorithms for model analysis, identification of adaptation needs, and risk assessment.

The paper deals with Next Generation Enterprise Information Systems in the context of Enterprise Engineering. The continuous alignment of business and IT in a rapidly changing environment is a grand challenge for today's enterprises. The ability to react timeously to continuous and unexpected change is called agility and is an essential quality of the modern enterprise. Being agile has consequences for the engineering of enterprises and enterprise information systems. In this paper a new paradigm for next generation enterprise information systems is proposed, which shifts the development approach of model-driven engineering to continuous alignment of business and IT for the agile enterprise. It is based on a metamodelling approach, which supports both human-interpretable graphical enterprise architecture and machine-interpretable enterprise ontologies. Furthermore, next generation enterprise information systems are described, which embed modelling tools and algorithms for model analysis.