Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
model instances. Properties of the selected model element can be changed in the
property window
.The
validation window
informs the user of any errors/warnings.
5 Summary and Future Work
In this paper we proposed a domain specific modeling language to support the
conceptual modeling of economic events based on the REA ontology. Conceptual
models based on our modeling language - the REA-DSL - aim at facilitating the
requirements elicitation process during the design of accounting and enterprise
information systems. The original REA ontology has a long history in accounting
and is based on well grounded accounting concepts. However, REA leaves space
for diverging interpretations of the relationships between core concepts. This has
also been criticized by Gailly and Poels who have proposed a new conceptual
representation of REA guided by proven ontology engineering principles [17].
They come up with a presentation based on UML class diagrams, which we feel
results in a complex visual representation that is hardly understood by domain
experts (cf. Figure 2). Similar to Gailly and Poels, we developed a representation
format that does not leave space for divergent interpretations. In our case, the
relationships between the core concepts are precisely defined by using OMG's
Meta Object Facility (MOF) leading to a dedicated REA domain specific model-
ing language. The MOF-based approach enables the development of a graphical
syntax that is dedicated to the needs of business modeling. Furthermore, our
REA-DSL comes with a graphical syntax covering a set of stencils that facilitate
the understanding of the domain expert. Beside proposing a meta model and a
graphical language, we developed a REA-DSL tool as a proof of concept.
In this work, we concentrated on the basic REA principles [4] and the value
chain perspective [13]. In future work, we will gradually extend the REA-DSL.
Currently, we are working on an integration of the REA policy infrastructure
[18] covering commitments, agreements and, furthermore, the typification of the
operational concepts [5]. Next, we plan to extend the REA-DSL by concepts to
derive a database design for enterprise information systems, which has been one
of the original goals of REA. For this purpose, we have already introduced the
concepts of economic event series and economic resource series in the current
DSL, because they will affect the multiplicities in the database design. By in-
cluding the policy infrastructure and the REA-driven database design, it will
become more obvious that REA models are of structural nature rather and do
not concentrate on the behavioral aspects of process models. Another intended
REA-DSL extension addresses the perspective from which the REA models are
described. Currently, we focus on the perspective of a single enterprise which ex-
changes value with other enterprises. In the Open-edi reference model (ISO/IEC
15944-4) REA concepts are used to describe the exchanges of value among en-
terprises from a neutral observer's point of view. We plan to integrate the ob-
server's perspective into our REA-DSL and to support semi-automatic mappings
between the perspectives.
