On the contribution of reference modeling to e-business standardization - How to apply design techniques of reference modeling to UN/CEFACT's modeling methodology

Abstract

Reference Modeling has evolved as a strong discipline especially driven by the German speaking community. Great achievements have been made in finding ways to leverage the potentials of reuse in business modeling. However, the perception of reference modeling as such is still limited to a rather small group of scholars. This is surprising as the phenomenon of "re-use" is very much in the center of various current topics in the international information systems and business process management discipline. In this paper, we set out exploring the contribution of findings in the field of reference modeling for business standardization. We show that in particular design techniques for reference modeling perfectly apply to solve conflicts of globalization and localization in business standards. As an example, we study the UMM as a specific standard developed within the United Nations CEFACT group. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.