Automated extraction of business documentation in enterprise information systems

Abstract

Extracting business documentation from ever-evolving information systems is a challenging task that requires a lot of effort, focus and technical expertise. Such a documentation provides a detailed overview of the system, lists domain model, operations, pre and post-conditions that impact the business flow. While all this information is captured by a particular software system, domain experts interested in such knowledge have limited access to it, either due to the lack of technical and programming expertise, or because the knowledge tangles throughout the entire system. This paper introduces a novel approach in aspect-driven information systems enabling automated extraction of business documentation and its transformation to various perspectives allowing domain experts to acquire needed and up-to-date information and knowledge. Moreover, our approach makes it possible to transform system business rules into a formal language description verifiable by checkers validating the feasibility of business operations. We demonstrate the approach in a case study indicating its benefits.