On design and implementation of a contract monitoring facility

In this paper we present a solution to the problem of designing and implementing a contract monitoring facility as part of a larger cross-organisational contract management architecture. We first identify key technical requirements for such a facility and then present our contract language and architecture that address key aspects of the requirements. The language is based on a precise model for the expression of behaviour and policies in the extended enterprise and it can be used to build models for a particular enterprise contract environment. These models can be executed by a contract engine that supports the contract management life cycle at both the contract establishment and contract execution phases.