A framework for business model driven development

Typically, large companies in an effort to increase efficiency specify business processes using workflow languages, while software designers specify the systems that implement these processes with the use of languages like UML. This separation of domain expertise allows for software engineers from each individual area to work more efficiently using domain specific languages and tools. However, models in these two domains evolve independently and inconsistencies may occur when two models become unsynchronized due to constant revision or evolution of processes and design artifacts. In this paper, we present a set of transformations to automatically generate a specific set of UML artifacts from the business process specifications. In particular, we examine and investigate a preliminary framework for the necessary annotations that need be applied to a business process model so that the generation of UML use cases, activity diagrams, collaboration diagrams and deployment diagrams could be feasible. The objective of this work is to be able to generate rich platform independent UML models that can be used for automating the generation of design artifacts and source code by using a model driven architecture approach. By doing so, we aim to decrease software design time, reduce maintenance costs and better support system evolution.