Hans-Erik Eriksson

Hans-Erik Eriksson (born 1961) is a Swedish computer scientist, organizational theorist, co-founder of Open Training AB, and author, known for his 2000 work on "Business modeling with UML."[1][2]

Life and work

After his studies in computer science in the early 1980s, Eriksson started working in industry in the field of in system development and software architecture. In 1999 Eriksson and Magnus Penker founded Open Training in Sweden, an online learning and e-training institute.[3] They sold the company in 2004, which continued as Open Training Sweden AB.[4]

In the late 1990s and early 2000s Eriksson authored and co-authored a series of books on business modeling and Unified Modeling Language in English. His first book in Swedish had been on object-oriented programming in C++, and was published in 1992.[5]

Work

Business Modeling with UML, 2000

In their 2000 "Business modeling with UML" Eriksson and Penker explained that, the main motive for business modelling starts with the every day business:

In order to keep up and be competitive, all companies and enterprises must assess the quality of their products and the efficiency of their services. In doing so, they must consider what is happening in the world around them, and they must also take an introspective look at their products or services. Is their internal operation working smoothly? Can they improve their product or service? Is their production running as efficiently as possible? Can they expand their product or service portfolios to reach new markets and customers?[6]

And furthermore with the information systems that support everyday business:

In addition to products and services, today's businesses must also evaluate their information systems. Do the information systems effectively support their way of working? Do the systems adapt easily to change? Is information used as an important strategic resource in the business? Is the information adequate and correct? In many of today's businesses, information systems no longer merely support the business. Increasingly, they are becoming an integral part of it. All businesses make some use of information technology, and it is important that their systems are really built to support the businesses of which they are an integrated part. The business is what ultimately defines the requirements on the information systems, and creating software without a proper understanding of the context in which that software is to operate is a dangerous adventure.[6]

Eriksson and Penker claimed that "in order to get such an understanding, it is essential to make a model of the business."[6]

Eriksson-Penker Business Extensions

In their 2000 "Business modeling with UML" Eriksson and Penker propose a fundamental domain modeling concept, which became known as the Eriksson-Penker Business Extensions. This enterprise modeling approach was similar to CIMOSA,[7] This reference model defined four different views of a business: resources, processes, goals, and rules.[8][9] The main principles in this approach, according to Grangel (2007), are:

  • Process: the set of actions that transform input objects into outputswhich have an added value for the customer. Processes have a goal andare affected by events.
  • Events: a change of state that is caused by a process and is then receivedby one or more processes.
  • Resources: all kinds of things that are used in the enterprise, whetherthey are either physical or abstract, for example, information.
  • Goals: defined for the enterprise and each of its processes; they representthe desired state of each enterprise resource.
  • Business rules: define the conditions under which business activity is tobe performed and enterprise knowledge should be represented.
  • General mechanism: mechanisms to be used in any diagram[10]

The Eriksson-Penker Business Extensions for the UML can be applied for "the analysis and description of enterprise-wide data structures and conversions between them (OMG Common Data Warehouse Metamodel - OMG CWM), and for modelling business workflows (Workflow Management Coalition Metamodel)."[11]

Selected publications

References

  1. ↑ Warmer, Jos B., and Anneke G. Kleppe. The object constraint language: getting your models ready for MDA. Addison-Wesley Professional, 2003.
  2. ↑ Kruchten, Philippe. The rational unified process: an introduction. Addison-Wesley Professional, 2004.
  3. ↑ Eriksson & Penker (2000)
  4. ↑ Open Training Sweden AB, at bloomberg.com.
  5. ↑ Eriksson, Hans-Erik. Objekt-orienterad programutveckling med C++. Studentlitteratur, 1992.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Hans-Erik Eriksson and Magnus Penker, Open Training."Business Modeling with UML," at utm.mx. Accessed 04-03-2015
  7. ↑ Radovan Cervenka, Ivan Trencansky (2007). The Agent Modeling Language - AML. p. 22
  8. ↑ Fausto Giunchiglia, James Odell, Gerhard Weiß.Agent-Oriented Software Engineering III, 2003. p. 148.
  9. ↑ Gabor Magyar, Gabor Knapp, Jože Zupancic (2007) Advances in Information Systems Development. 2007. p. 91.
  10. ↑ Grangel, Reyes, et al. "UML for enterprise modelling: basis for a Model-Driven Approach." Enterprise Interoperability. Springer London, 2007. 91-101.
  11. ↑ Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, Engineering, Vol. 8, nr. 1 (March 2002), p. 3.