[Application_Provider] Multiple Application_Family (s)

[tkinte]

Hi,

As like the relation between Business_Process_Family and Business_Process_Type allows multiplicity,

It could be interesting to have the same possibility for the relation between Application_Provider and Application_Family.

The motivation is looking for a more straightfull way to associate, through the APP_APP_TO_BUS_RELATION, Business_Process or Business_Activity with a "subset" of Application_Provider (s), allowing at the same time an given Application_Provider to be member of more than one Application_Family.

Allowing more than one application family for a application provider will bring more flexibility in defining application family(s) in business points of view.

Best regards.

Tshitshi

[jasonp]

Hi Tshitshi,

for reasons of consistency, we believe it makes sense to allow multiple cardinality for the Application_Provider to Application_Family relationship and so we are happy to make that change to the meta-model.

However, given the description of your requirement, I would be interested in a concrete example of how you are using Application_Family to group your Applications. The reason for asking is that you may need to be careful that you are not using Application_Family to model what should actually be Application Services.

Thanks for the suggestion,

Jason

[tkinte]

Hi Jason,

Thank you for the feed-back and the foreseen metamodel adaptation.

What I have in mind is to enable the full potential of the "APP_APP_TO_BUS_RELATION" relation. As the description states, this relation offers one of the way to relate supporting Application(s) and supported process, by the mean of an "Application_Family" : https://www.enterprise-architecture.org ... ATION.html

Let's say we have :

An application A implementing a service AS, AS1
An application B implementing the service BS, BS1
An Application C implementing the service CS, CS1

Business Process P supported by A, B and C (by specifically AS, BS, CS)
Business Process P1 supported by A and B (by specifically AS1, BS1)
Business Process P2 supported by A and C (by specifically AS1, CS1)

With Multiple Application Families for an Application Provider, we could create differente families to group respectively the 3 applications providers, and then associate the right application family with the right business process, via "APP_APP_TO_BUS_RELATION" relations.

I think this possibility could bring more flexibility in defining application family(s) in business points of view.

Best regards

Tshitshi

[jasonp]

Hi Tshitshi,

yes, that makes perfect sense. We will be sure to make that change in the next update to our meta-model and so feel free to make the change in your repository, knowing that it will be consistent with our baseline meta-model in the future.

Regards,

Jason

[tkinte]

Thanks!