Enterprise modelling and the UML: (sometimes) a conflict without a case

Nowadays, the UML language is one of the most widely accepted software modelling language. Enterprise modelling is concerned with the externalisation of knowledge about the enterprise, for a different set of purposes. One possible, future and challenging objective of enterprise modelling is to provide a base for developing, composing and selecting enterprise software applications. Therefore, there is a tendency to apply the UML for modelling the enterprise behaviours and structures mainly because the concept of “object” is ubiquitous and allows, safe or unsafe, reuse of already existing definitions. However, this reuse can sometimes become abusive. Furthermore, because there is no consensus on languages and concepts for enterprise modelling, it does not make much sense to evaluate UML by comparing it to any specific enterprise modelling technique. As a consequence, in this paper, rather than trying to evaluate UML as a candidate for enterprise modelling, we take a more general view, trying to explain the possible roles of the UML with respect to enterprise modelling. We investigate mainly three kinds of use of UML and show that only one of these may sometimes be conflicting.