The cooperative hypermedia approach to collaborative engineering and operation of virtual enterprises

Current information technology for Extended Enterprise (EE) and virtual enterprises is fragmented. Shared, dynamic and holistic enterprise models are not adequately supported. We analyze the requirements on modeling languages, infrastructures, and tools for supporting the EE life cycle. We take a model-driven approach to technology integration. Our approach is based on a cooperative hypermedia-based dynamic holistic enterprise model. The dynamic aspects are supported by the tailorability and extensibility of the model and tools. The holistic modeling is realized by integrating modeling constructs needed for all the important aspects of an enterprise and by integrating cooperative modeling, process enactment and computational simulation capabilities into a cooperative system operating upon the same model. The model is presented as graphical hypermedia structures for team members to manipulate it cooperatively. The resulting system, XCHIPS, is an extensible cooperative hypermedia system that provides comprehensive support for cooperative engineering and operation of virtual enterprises