The application of UML and an open distributed process framework to information system design

The development of information systems to support design and manufacturing activities should follow a reference model in order to be compatible with m ajor systems architectures. In contrast, computational methodologies and no tations provide ways to design and build information systems but usually do not take reference models into consideration. This paper discusses how ref erence models and computational methodologies/notation can be used in harmo ny, and demonstrates this through an example of an information system desig n where Unified Modelling Language (UML) diagrams are applied to represent the Reference Model of Open Distributed Processing (RM-ODP) viewpoints. A s elected set of UML diagrams has been applied in the Enterprise, Information and Computational RM-ODP viewpoint. The inherent object-oriented propertie s of the reported research further enable and facilitate the migration of e ssential elements from one RM-ODP viewpoint to another via the use of UML n otation. This approach provides an important contribution by harmonising a range of views of an information system. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.