Conference Link: http://www.is-bmsd.org/

Foreword: When developing an information system, we need adequate underlying business / enterprise models that would help appropriately considering the real-life business context in which the information system would have to operate. This challenge is being addressed by numerous researchers whose efforts have been inspired by the goal of closing the gap between enterprise modeling and software design. Even though some results have been delivered in this direction, we do not observe actual improvements yet and still many information systems development projects go over time/budget, and the user satisfaction remains low. Moreover, the greater current computing and hardware possibilities inspire developers to offer more and more “built in” intelligence for the benefit of the user, which is nevertheless causing even lower user satisfaction and even frustration – the ways in which many software systems “think” for the user, “decide” what should be the needs of the user, “adapt” to inferred user habits, and so on, are widely unacceptable for the public. More and more we hear people saying that human behavior is too complex to be graspable by a programmed software system in an adequate and nearly exhaustive way. At the same time, we believe that we should not deny the inspiring progress software development has reached. Instead, we may better learn to what extent we should rely on software and we should improve our ability to align software to its real-life (business) context – here enterprise models are claimed to be crucial (not only for understanding and/or (re-)engineering the enterprise under consideration but also for adequately developing on top a supportive software system). Automating (partially) enterprise processes by means of software systems can only be accomplished in a methodological and systematic way, if based on corresponding enterprise models. Said otherwise, software generation should stem from corresponding enterprise modeling, by aligning enterprise modeling concepts and corresponding software specification concepts. Only such an enterprise-software alignment could actually guarantee that: (a) the software system would be properly integrated in its enterprise context; (b) an enterprise-software traceability would be possible allowing not only for software updates driven by new requirements but also for possible enterprise re-engineering activities, inspired by a goal to better fit the enterprise to the IT platform(s) used; (c) re-use could be an issue, counting on enterprise modeling constructs and software components. This points to the emerging discipline of enterprise engineering that addresses challenges such as agility and adaptability of enterprises, and is partially inspired by the goal of better facilitating the development of supportive (with regard to enterprises) software systems. Nevertheless, most current enterprises represent complex, evolving networked organizations while most current software systems are composed of sophisticated components and driven by complex rules. Thus, neither enterprise models nor software specification models can usefully be built starting from the scratch – what we need are (generic) enterprise modeling patterns and possibility to adequately reflect such patterns in corresponding software components. Closing the gap between enterprise modeling and software design in a component-based way has been an important research challenge for years already. All this has been dominant for BMSD, the international symposium on Business Modeling and Software Design, bringing together researchers and practitioners interested in business/enterprise modeling and its relationship to software design, and demonstrating for a fourth consecutive year a high quality of papers and presentations as well as a stimulating discussion environment. The theme of BMSD 2014 (the Fourth International Symposium on Business Modeling and Software Design) is: “GENERIC BUSINESS MODELING PATTERNS AND SOFTWARE RE-USE”, and the scientific areas of interest to the symposium are: (a) business models and requirements; (b) business models and services; (c) business models and software; (d) information systems architectures. Further, there are three application-oriented special sessions, namely: a special session on e-Health Services and Technologies, a special session on Intelligent Systems and Business Analysis, and an Industrial Track. These special sessions are bringing additional practice-driven value to the symposium. This book contains the proceedings of BMSD 2014, held in Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, on 24-26 June 2014. The proceedings consists of 37 high-quality research and experience papers that have not been published previously. These papers have undergone a detailed peer-review process and were selected based on rigorous quality standards. The symposium has been organized and sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Institute for Collaboration and Research on Enterprise Systems and Technology (IICREST), in collaboration with the Public Research Centre Henri Tudor (TUDOR). Cooperating organizations have been the Dutch Research School for Information and Knowledge Systems (SIKS), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), the UTwente Center for Telematics and Information Technology (CTIT), and AMAKOTA Ltd. The fourth edition of BMSD follows three inspiring events, namely: Sofia 2011, Geneva 2012, and Noordwijkerhout 2013. We are proud to have succeeded in establishing and maintaining high scientific quality and stimulating collaborative atmosphere – the BMSD Community is characterized by competence, motivation, sharing, and innovativeness. In addressing the above-mentioned research challenges and areas, BMSD 2014 has considered a large number of research topics: from more conceptual ones, such as enterprise modeling, modeling languages, meta-modeling, ontologies, business rules, enterprise regulations, model-driven adaptability, intelligent systems, and Semiotics, to more technical ones, such as software specification, use cases, database clusters, model-driven testing, and ‘e-applications’ (in Healthcare and Business), from more business-oriented ones, such as business model design, enterprise architecture management, business process simulation, enterprise resource planning and strategies, and requirements specification, to software architectures –related topics. We believe that all these research contributions highlight challenging (technical) problems and present innovative solutions relevant to the scientific areas mentioned already. The 37 published papers (including several Invited Papers) were selected from 52 submissions and 12 of these papers were selected for a 30-minutes oral presentation (Full Papers); in addition, 25 papers were selected for a 20-minutes oral presentation (Short Papers and Special Sessions Papers). Hence, the full-paper acceptance ratio of 23% (the same as in 2013) shows a high level of quality which we intend to maintain and reinforce in the following editions of the symposium. Further, the BMSD’14 authors are from: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tunisia, UK, and USA (listed alphabetically); this makes in total 21 countries (compared to 14 countries having been represented in 2013, 11 countries – in 2012, and 10 countries – in 2011); 7 countries, nevertheless, have been represented in all 4 BMSD editions so far, these are: Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Russia, and UK. This clearly indicates for a very strong European influence and also for our succeeding to add on the “BMSD Map” impressive non-European countries. The current proceedings’ Publisher is SCITEPRESS and we deliver not only printed proceedings but also an electronic version of the proceedings – all presented papers will be made available at the SCITEPRESS Digital Library by September, 2014. Furthermore, the proceedings will be submitted for indexation by DBLP (Computer Science Bibliography). Finally, the authors of around ten selected papers presented at BMSD 2014 will be invited by Springer-Verlag to submit revised and extended versions of their papers for publication in a Springer LNBIP (Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing) Series book. The high quality of the BMSD 2014 program is enhanced by two Keynote Lectures, delivered by distinguished guests who are renowned experts in their fields, including (alphabetically): Henderik Proper (Public Research Centre Henri Tudor, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg) and Roel Wieringa (University of Twente, The Netherlands). In addition, the Keynote Speakers and other BMSD’14 participants will take part in a panel discussion and also in other discussions stimulating community building and facilitating possible R&D project acquisition initiatives. These high points in the symposium program would definitely contribute to maintaining the event’s high quality and its stable and motivated Community. Building and interesting and successful program for the symposium required the dedicated efforts of many people. Firstly, we must thank the Authors, whose research and development achievements are recorded here. Also, the Program Committee members each deserve credit for the diligent and rigorous peer-reviewing. Further, we would like to mention the excellent organization provided by the IICREST team (supported by its logistics partner, AMAKOTA Ltd.) – the team did all necessary work for delivering a stimulating and productive event; the greatly appreciated support of Dimitris Mitrakos is to be especially mentioned here. We appreciate the local support brought forward by our Colleagues from the Public Research Centre Henri Tudor. We appreciate as well the willingness of SCITEPRESS to publish the current proceedings and we bring forward special compliments to Vitor Pedrosa for his devoted and professional work with regard to the proceedings preparation. We are indebted to Alexander Verbraeck from TU Delft for all his encouraging support. Last but not least, we thank the Keynote Speakers for their invaluable contribution and for taking the time to synthesize and deliver their talks. We wish you all an inspiring symposium and an enjoyable stay in the beautiful city of Luxembourg. We look forward to seeing you next year in Milan, Italy, for the Fifth International Symposium on Business Modeling and Software Design (BMSD 2015), details of which will be made available at http://www.is-bmsd.org. (More)

Volumes: