Modeling Competence Framework Elements with an Ontology-based Approach

Organizations are required to pay constant attention to human resource development in order to prosper. Competence frameworks have received increased attention in this context, as the availability of qualified people with the right combination of competences establishes itself as a major issue for organizational performance. This paper investigates the modeling of competence frameworks in Enterprise Architecture: (i) we identify a key set of competence-related concepts found in competence frameworks; (ii) analyze them using the Unified Foundational Ontology to build a reference Competence Ontology, and, then; (iii) propose well-founded representation patterns for competence modeling in the ArchiMate EA language, discussing how these patterns can be embedded in enterprise competence-based practices.</p

A Holistic Social Constructionist perspective to Enterprise Education

Purpose – Drawing on the Gestalt approach this article proposes a holistic framework for enterprise education (EE) research based on Social Constructionism, illustrating how the latter supports research into experiential learning in EE in 7 UK Higher Education (HE) pharmacy schools. Design/ Methodology/ Approach – This paper is based on a qualitative empirical study involving educators in UK Higher Education Institution (HEI) pharmacy schools in semi-structured interviews, and investigates the delivery of EE through experiential learning approaches. Social Constructionism is proposed as a suitable underlying philosophical paradigm. Findings – A Social Constructionism paradigm, which adopts relative realism ontology, transactional epistemology, and Gadamer’s Hermeneutic Phenomenology, offers a relevant, multi-perspectival philosophical foundation for EE research, supporting transactional relationships within contexts of multiple possibilities. Research limitations/implications – Social Constructionism does not necessarily support the individualistic paradigm, as advocated by Constructivists; and the values associated with the former encourage a more collaborative and cooperative approach different from the latter. Practical implications –The paper supports the understanding that applying experiential learning through inter-disciplinary and inter-professional learning is regarded as an approach beneficial for educators, institutions and learners, within the context of EE. Originality/ value – This paper offers a holistic conceptual framework of Social Constructionism that draws on the ‘Gestalt Approach’, and highlights the harmony between the ontological, epistemological and methodological underpinnings of Social Constructionism. The paper demonstrates the relevance of the proposed framework in EE research within the context of an empirical study, which is different in that it focuses on the delivery aspect of EE by considering the views of the providers (educators), an hitherto under-researched area. Paper type – Research paper Key words: Enterprise education, research philosophy, Social Constructionism, relative realism ontology, transactional epistemology, Gadamer’s Hermeneutic Phenomenology, Gestalt approach

Modeling competences in enterprise architecture:from knowledge, skills, and attitudes to organizational capabilities

Competence-based approaches have received increased attention, as the demand for qualified people with the right combination of competences establishes itself as a major factor of organizational performance. This paper examines how competences can be incorporated into Enterprise Architecture modeling: (i) we identify a key set of competence-related concepts such as knowledge, skills, and attitudes, (ii) analyze and relate them using a reference ontology (grounded on the Unified Foundational Ontology), and (iii) propose a representation strategy for modeling competences and their constituent elements leveraging the ArchiMate language, discussing how the proposed models can fit in enterprise competence-based practices. Our approach is intended to cover two tasks relevant to the combined application of Enterprise Architecture and Competence Modeling: ‘zooming in’ on competences, revealing the relations between competences, knowledge, skills, attitudes and other personal characteristics that matter in organizational performance, and ‘zooming out’ of competences, placing them in the wider context of other personal competences and overall organizational capabilities. An assessment of the representation is offered in the form of an empirical survey.</p

A Benchmark to Understand the Role of Knowledge Graphs on Large Language Model's Accuracy for Question Answering on Enterprise SQL Databases

Enterprise applications of Large Language Models (LLMs) hold promise for question answering on enterprise SQL databases. However, the extent to which LLMs can accurately respond to enterprise questions in such databases remains unclear, given the absence of suitable Text-to-SQL benchmarks tailored to enterprise settings. Additionally, the potential of Knowledge Graphs (KGs) to enhance LLM-based question answering by providing business context is not well understood. This study aims to evaluate the accuracy of LLM-powered question answering systems in the context of enterprise questions and SQL databases, while also exploring the role of knowledge graphs in improving accuracy. To achieve this, we introduce a benchmark comprising an enterprise SQL schema in the insurance domain, a range of enterprise queries encompassing reporting to metrics, and a contextual layer incorporating an ontology and mappings that define a knowledge graph. Our primary finding reveals that question answering using GPT-4, with zero-shot prompts directly on SQL databases, achieves an accuracy of 16%. Notably, this accuracy increases to 54% when questions are posed over a Knowledge Graph representation of the enterprise SQL database. Therefore, investing in Knowledge Graph provides higher accuracy for LLM powered question answering systems.Comment: 34 page

Semantic technologies for the production and publication of open data in ACI - Automobile club d’Italia

Semantic technologies combine knowledge representation techniques with artificial intelligence in order to achieve a more effective management of enterprise knowledge bases, thanks to the separation of the conceptual level of the applications from the logical and physical ones, and to the automatic reasoning services they deploy for data access and control. In this context, Ontology-based Data Management (OBDM) [3] has consolidated itself as a paradigm for data integration and governance, based on a three-tier architecture: the ontology, the data sources, and the mappings, which declaratively link the ontology predicates to the data in the sources. In this talk1 we present a joint project by Sapienza University of Rome, the Automobile Club d’Italia (ACI), and OKKAM S.r.l.2, a spinoff of the University of Trento. The objectives of the project were the definition of an ontology of ACI’s Public Vehicle Register (PRA) and car tax domains, the development of an OBDM system to access the data through such ontology, and the creation of a web portal for the publication of ACI’s car parc data in Linked Open format

OOREA: An Object-Oriented Resources, Events, Agents Model for Enterprise Systems Design

A number of modeling approaches have been proposed in the literature for designing business information systems. This paper critiques prior data modeling approaches and presents an integrated object-oriented modeling approach that captures both the structural and the behavioral aspects of the business domain. Although there is considerable interest in object-oriented (OO) technologies in practice and in the information systems literature, there is no widely accepted OO modeling approach that facilitates the identification of objects from a business information processing perspective. Based on McCarthy’s (1982) resources, events, agents (REA) framework, the business process focused object-oriented ontology presented in this paper identifies the key resources, events, and agents in an enterprise information systems context. Termed OOREA, the ontology extends McCarthy’s REA model by capturing both the structural aspects of modeling, in terms of the objects of interest in the domain, and also the behavioral aspects in terms of the processes that modify objects. Application of the model is illustrated in the context of sales and related events for a retailing enterprise

Ontology-based patterns for the integration of business processes and enterprise application architectures

Increasingly, enterprises are using Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) as an approach to Enterprise Application Integration (EAI). SOA has the potential to bridge the gap between business and technology and to improve the reuse of existing applications and the interoperability with new ones. In addition to service architecture descriptions, architecture abstractions like patterns and styles capture design knowledge and allow the reuse of successfully applied designs, thus improving the quality of software. Knowledge gained from integration projects can be captured to build a repository of semantically enriched, experience-based solutions. Business patterns identify the interaction and structure between users, business processes, and data. Specific integration and composition patterns at a more technical level address enterprise application integration and capture reliable architecture solutions. We use an ontology-based approach to capture architecture and process patterns. Ontology techniques for pattern definition, extension and composition are developed and their applicability in business process-driven application integration is demonstrated

Enterprise engineering using semantic technologies

Modern Enterprises are facing unprecedented challenges in every aspect of their businesses: from marketing research, invention of products, prototyping, production, sales to billing. Innovation is the key to enhancing enterprise performances and knowledge is the main driving force in creating innovation. The identification and effective management of valuable knowledge, however, remains an illusive topic. Knowledge management (KM) techniques, such as enterprise process modelling, have long been recognised for their value and practiced as part of normal business. There are plentiful of KM techniques. However, what is still lacking is a holistic KM approach that enables one to fully connect KM efforts with existing business knowledge and practices already in IT systems, such as organisational memories. To address this problem, we present an integrated three-dimensional KM approach that supports innovative semantics technologies. Its automated formal methods allow us to tap into modern business practices and capitalise on existing knowledge. It closes the knowledge management cycle with user feedback loops. Since we are making use of reliable existing knowledge and methods, new knowledge can be extracted with less effort comparing with another method where new information has to be created from scratch