Model-driven Planning and Design of Cooperative Information Systems

Cooperative information systems (CIS) aim at continued cooperativity between user groups through componentized networks of information systems. Change management is therefore a definitional part of CIS. We advocate a conceptual modeling strategy for addressing this task, and illustrate it with experiences gained in WibQuS, a project aimed at CIS support for Total Quality Management in manufacturing organizations. These experiences emphasize the role of meta models in focusing the change process. Specific meta models and supporting environments are presented for: cooperative business process modeling in distributed organizations; simulation analysis of short-term and long-term effects of information flow designs; forward and reverse mappings between a distributed (relational) system interoperability layer and the information flow model. Models are not just analyzed at change time, but also support planned and unplanned information flows at runtime.