ODP Enterprise Viewpoint Specification

The Open Distributed Processing (ODP) standardisation initiative has led to a framework by which distributed systems can be modelled using a number of viewpoints. These include an emphenterprise viewpoint, which focuses on the objectives and policies of the enterprise that the system is meant to support. Although the ODP reference model provides abstract languages of relevant concepts, it does not prescribe particular techniques that are to be used in the individual viewpoints. In particular, there is a need to develop appropriate notations for ODP enterprise specification, in order to increase the applicability of the ODP framework. In this paper we tackle this concern and develop a specification language to support the current draft of the enterprise viewpoint. In doing so we analyse the current definition of the textscodp enterprise viewpoint language. Using the textscuml, a meta-model of the core concepts and their relationships is constructed, and we also investigate to what extent the textscuml can be used for enterprise viewpoint specification. We then focus on the expression of enterprise policies that govern the behaviour of enterprise objects. We develop a policy language which is a combination of structured English and simple predicate logic, and is built on top of the formal object-oriented specification language Object-Z, into which the complete language is translated. We illustrate the ideas in the paper with a case study that presents an enterprise specification of a library support system.