Modeling business processes for Web-based information systems development

We are entering the era of e-business. Organizations are becoming more and more global and virtual. Modern ICT (information and communication technology) offers the enabling potentials for realizing these organizations. However, the current practice of information system development is not able to meet the new requirements. Not only do developers need a profound insight into the technological potentials of e-business, but also the business system architects need an appropriate understanding of e-business and of the business processes of future organizations. This paper presents such an appropriate understanding, in which an organization is modeled completely abstracted from all realization issues. The potentials of this new understanding, called the OER (Order, Execution, Results) paradigm, are presented and discussed, and its practical usefulness is demonstrated by applying the DEMO (Dynamic Essential Modeling of Organizations) methodology, which is fully based on the OER paradigm, to the example of a library.