Generalised Enterprise Reference Architecture and Methodology

Generalised Enterprise Reference Architecture and Methodology (GERAM) is a generalised enterprise architecture framework for enterprise integration and business process engineering. It identifies the set of components recommended for use in enterprise engineering.

This framework was developed in the 1990s by a joint task force of both the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) and the International Federation of Information Processing (FIP]) on enterprise architectures for enterprise integration. The development started with the evaluation of then-existing frameworks for enterprise application integration, which was developed into an overall definition of a so-called "generalised architecture".

One of the basics of GERAM is that enterprise modelling was seen as the major issue in enterprise engineering and integration. It contained several of building blocks, in which the methodologies and the corresponding languages have been implemented, such as:

The building blocks where designed to support the modelling process by providing means for more efficient modelling.

The resulting enterprise model (EM) represents all or part of the enterprise operation. These models will allow simulation of operational alternatives and thereby their evaluation leading. GERAM provides a generic description of all the elements recommended in enterprise engineering and integration.

Generalised Enterprise Reference Architecture and Methodology (GERAM) is an enterprise-reference architecture that models the whole life history of an enterprise integration project from its initial concept in the eyes of the entrepreneurs who initially developed it, through its definition, functional design or specification, detailed design, physical implementation or construction, and finally operation to obsolescence. The architecture aims to be a relatively simple framework upon which all the functions and activities involved in the aforementioned phases of the life of the enterprise-integration project can be mapped. It also will permit the tools used by the investigators or practitioners at each phase to be indicated. The architecture defined will apply to projects, products, and processes; as well as to enterprises.

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