On the syntax of reference model configuration: Transforming the C-EPC into lawful EPC models

For Enterprise Systems (ES) to provide support for the business operations of enterprises, they need to be configured to fit organizational requirements. ES reference models aim at supporting this task but, up to now, fail in providing adequate conceptual support due to missing configurability of the models themselves. This paper extends the work on a configurable reference modeling notation. In previous research we developed an adequate conceptual notation for configurable reference models. This paper considers a syntactic perspective of reference model configuration. We discuss the lawful environments of configurable nodes and report about syntactic and semantic implications of model configuration in these environments. We then apply these findings in the design of a XML-based interchange format for reference model configuration and discuss its applicability for the conceptual design of tool support for the configuration of reference process models, which will facilitate and aid the verification of the syntactical correctness of configured reference process models that may then be mapped to executable process specifications.