Introduction

Abstract

How did enterprises look 40–50 years ago today? What were then the rudimentary business process automations [1] and how is this different from the current business process automations that go beyond conventional data manipulation and record-keeping activities [2]? How did enterprises exchange information then, not counting on the global telecommunications and the digital multimedia [3] and what are the differences now when a cell phone alone seems to be capable of supporting video communication, answering complex questions, and providing satellite navigation [4]? Was it possible then (without web services [5] and cloud infrastructures [6]) for associations between different enterprises to combine manufacturing, assembly, wholesale distribution, and retail sales in what is currently called business process externalization [7]? Were software technologists able then to develop really adaptable information systems [8], not counting on sensor technology [9]? We argue that answering those questions would bring us to the conclusion that over the past several decades enterprises have been shifting to experience a growing dependency on ICT (Information and Communication Technology ) [10]. For this reason, it is not surprising that SE (Software Engineering ) [11] gets increasingly relevant with regard to enterprise developments. Hence, even though EE (Enterprise Engineering) [12] and SE have developed separately as disciplines, it is currently important to bring together enterprise modeling and software specification; we argue that this would allow enterprises to adequately utilize current technology.