On the usage of qualitative reasoning as an approach towards enterprise modelling

This paper analyzes the computational requirements of enterprise modelling, presents a reasoning framework, and reports about a prototype implementation. Enterprise modelling studies complex systems which are normally only partially known, and focuses on studying the qualitative properties of the underlying system, and thus differs from traditional quantitative approaches. Various modelling approaches from computer science and management science are discussed with respect to their suitability for enterprise modelling. Qualitative reasoning is identified as a promising basis to develop a computational framework for enterprise modelling. A rules-constraints-method of reasoning with imprecise knowledge, which is essentially an interval-based version of difference equations, is proposed as a powerful and versatile tool for enterprise modelling. As an illustrative example, a model of a business organization, derived from the concept of a financial statement, is developed and simulated.