Some Ontological Issues of the REA Framework in Relation to Enterprise Business Process

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to describe using REA framework to model enterprise planning not only at the operational level but also at the policy level. Using policy level enlarges the possibility of the models on the base of the REA framework because the policy level in this way represents metalevel of the model. The policy level of the REA framework itself is comprised both of the entities related by typification, grouping and policy relationships and of the Commitment entity with the fulfillment relationship. This entity may be viewed as either a sublayer or a middle layer of the REA framework. The Commitment entity belongs to the fundamental entities of the policy level but has some specifications that are expressed by the fulfillment relationship. This many-to-many relationship forms the link to the operational level. In the paper we discuss the problem and suggest some solution that moves the Commitment entity closer to the typification and grouping semantic abstractions.REA ontology; enterprise business process; semantic abstractions