Formalising ODP enterprise policies

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 enterprise 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 enterprise viewpoint. In doing so, we focus on the expression of enterprise policies that govern the behaviour of enterprise objects. The language we develop is a combination of structured English and simple predicate logic, and is built on top of the formal object-oriented specification language Object-Z. We illustrate its use with a case study that presents an enterprise specification of a library support system.