Model driven process engineering

Within the domain of information systems, one of the main technological moves we may presently observe in industrial circles is the paradigm shift from object composition to model transformation. This is happening at a very fast pace. Among the concrete signs of this evolution one may mention the ongoing change at the Object Management Group from OMA (Object Management Architecture) to MDA (Model-Driven Architecture). A new information system landscape is emerging that will be more model-centered than object-oriented. Within this context, the information engineer will use and produce many models of low granularity and high abstraction. These models may describe static or dynamic aspects and may be accordingly qualified of product and process models. This paper focuses more particularly on the recent evolution of process models. It shows some aspects of the industrial state of the art in the domain and suggests some benefits that could be reaped from a well-mastered utilization of these techniques.