UMLB2B: Model-based development of a B2B : A method for building platform independent models

Abstract

This thesis is more or less developed in parallel with my participation in the Infrastructure project of Norsk EDIPRO. In Norsk EDIPRO we tried to standardise a way for companies to do business over the Internet using new frameworks and technologies like MDA and XML.

The contribution of the thesis is a method called UMLB2B which focus on how to build the models that are describing information and business processes of each company in a standard way so it would be easier to integrate their enterprise applications and business logic. Companies could then interact electronically by using different platforms which they already use today as long as they have specified their information, processes and interfaces regardless of the platform. This of course strongly depends on transformation tools and code generation as the platform independent models would have to be understood by the computer that is doing the actual interaction.

Some methods do exist today, but they are either too complex or too general to be applied to this context by small and medium enterprises. UMLB2B is mainly dedicated to the development of platform independent models which holds the business logic. A vision is that if all interacting companies develop such models and use the same semantic building blocks to understand each other and registry to find each other their business models, it would be easier to integrate their B2B (Business to business) Internet interaction systems.

Although the thesis gives some background materials to existing development methods and technologies, the software and business developers which are the potential users of UMLB2B should have some knowledge about the UML and modelling.