Formal approach to modeling of modern information systems

Most recently, the concept of business documents has started to play double role. On one hand, a business document (word processing text or calculation sheet) can be used as specification tool, on the other hand the business document is an immanent constituent of business processes, thereby essential component of business information systems. The recent tendency is that the majority of documents and their contents within business information systems remain in semi-structured format and a lesser part of documents is transformed into schemas of structured databases. In order to keep the emerging situation in hand, we suggest the creation (1) a theoretical framework for modeling business Information Systems and (2) a design method for practical application based on the theoretical model that provides the structuring principles. The modeling approach that focuses on documents and their interrelationships with business processes assists in perceiving the activities of modern information systems.