Options for expressing ODP enterprise communities and their policies by using UML

The ODP Enterprise Language allows the rules and policies that characterize an organization to be brought together and used to guide the various stages of system design, development and operation. UML is one of the leading notations for system design and is likely to be the basis for a wide range of design tools. However, UML has a comparatively weak set of facilities for supporting the combination of existing, parameterized specifications and, in particular, for defining and managing policies. This paper discusses the requirements for defining communities and expressing policies within a UML environment, compares ways in which the existing notation might be used in enterprise specification, and indicates some of the implications this would have for system development tools.