Business Action and Information Modeling - the Task of the Next Millennium

In this paper, we discuss the importance of considering the action character of information when modelling information in business processes. The Language Action Perspective (LAP) is described and proposed as the perspective of choice for information modelling – now and for the future. It is emphasized that two of the most important research areas in the new millennium are to further develop LAP, and to operationalize it into systems development methods. Furthermore, the generic business framework of Business Action Theory (BAT) and the requirements engineering method VIBA/SIMM (Versatile Information and Business Analysis according to the Situation adaptable work and Information Modelling Method), as representatives of LAP, are both described and positioned within LAP. This positioning is achieved by elaborating different LAP approaches and their relationships to BAT and VIBA/SIMM. INTRODUCTION The Language Action Perspective (LAP) presents an alternative foundation for understanding information and information systems. Interest in LAP was born in the early 1980s (Flores & Ludlow, 1980; Goldkuhl & Lyytinen, 1982) and LAP gained worldwide popularity during the late 1980s. This was due largely to Winograd & Flores’ (1986) book, which proposed LAP as a ‘new foundation for design’. Today, at the dawn of a new millennium, LAP has reached a mature level. Several business-modelling frameworks are based on LAP, such as Action Workflow (Denning & Medina-Mora, 1995), SAMPO (Speech-act-based Office Modeling Approach) (Auramäki et al., 1988), DEMO (Dynamic Essential Modelling of Organisations) (Dietz, 1994), and BAT (Business Action Theory) (Goldkuhl, 1998). There are also systems development and requirements engineering approaches, such as Commodious (Holm, 1996), SOMA (Semantic Object Modelling Approach) (Graham, 1998), and VIBA/SIMM (Versatile Information and Business Analysis according to the Situation adaptable work and Information Modelling Method) (Goldkuhl & Ågerfalk, 1998). LAP is based on the theory of speech acts introduced by Austin (1962), and further developed and formalized by Searle (1969; 1979). Over the years, LAP has also incorporated other sociolinguistic theories, of which the theory of communicative action by Habermas (1984) is the most prominent. The main message of LAP is that an utterance (a communicaThis paper is published as Chapter 7 in Information Modeling in the New Millennium, (Eds, Rossi M and Siau K) Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing, 2001, pp. 110-136.