Abstract:
There are many situations during information system development (ISD) where there is
a need to do modelling on a business level before more detailed and robust modelling are
done on the technical system level. Most business level modelling uses some form of
natural language constructs which are, on the one hand, easy to use by untrained users,
but which are too vague and ambiguous to be used in subsequent systems level modelling
by systems analysts, on the other hand. The goal of this article is to suggest a subset of
morphology, syntax and semantics concepts that may be used to analyse texts containing
business rules during Information Systems analysis and design. The contribution of this
research is to provide a better understanding of the fundamental entities in business and
ISD modelling and their relationships in order to improve informal, mostly textual,
business modelling.
Description:
This article is based on a chapter from a PhD thesis by Pieter Joubert
(Towards an integrative modelling technique between business and information systems
development) who graduated posthumously in the Department of Informatics at the
University of Pretoria on 4 September 2013. (http://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/31630)
