Enterprise Information Systems in Academia and Practice: Lessons learned from a MBSE Project

Abstract

The development of domain-specific information systems, especially web information systems, takes a certain amount of time, needs intensive testing to ensure a certain quality and lacks the consistency of front- and backend. Using model-based strategies for the creation of information systems helps to overcome these problems by fastening the development process, facilitating testing and ensuring consistency-by-construction. In practice, however, they are still rarely used. In this paper, we show that model-based engineering is beneficial for the creation of an enterprise information system and improves the quality of the resulting product. We present the basic functionalities of our Generator for Enterprise Management (MontiGEM) and discuss identified problems and lessons learned in a project in practice. The generator was developed simultaneously with and for an enterprise management system. Our research shows that the use of generative methods and MBSE improves the adaptability and reusability of parts of the application on the one hand but on the other hand, there are still obstacles that slow down its broad application in practice.