UN/CEFACT's Modeling Methodology

UN/CEFACT's Modeling Methodology, commonly known as UMM is a modeling methodology which is developed by UN/CEFACT.

Vision

A primary vision of UN/CEFACT is to capture the business knowledge that enables the development of low cost software components by software vendors to help the small and medium size companies, and emerging economies engage in e-Business practices. Thus UN/CEFACT’s Modeling Methodology focuses on developing business process and information models in a protocol neutral manner. This approach provides insurance against obsolescence.

UMM at a glance

UMM enables to capture business knowledge independent of the underlying implementation technology, like Web_services or ebXML. The goal is to specify a global choreography of a business collaboration serving as an “agreement” between the participating partners in the respective collaboration. Each business partner derives in turn its local choreography, enabling the configuration of the business partner’s system for the use within a service oriented architecture (SOA).

In order to guarantee user acceptance of the UMM, it must be both effective and easy to understand for the business process modelers and software architects.

UMM is based on the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and its current version is 1.0 with version 2.0 currently being under development.

UMM 1.0 is based on UML 1.4 whereas UMM 2.0 will be based on UML 2.1.

External links

• UN/CEFACT's Technologies and Methodologies Working Group
• UMM Foundation and UMM Base Specifications 1.0 and 2.0
• A UML Profile and Add-In for UN/CEFACT's Modeling Methodology (diploma thesis)
• UN/CEFACT's Modeling Methodology Development Site, keeps track of UMM's ongoing development

Known Implementations

• An Enterprise Architect Add-In for UMM 1.0
• An Enterprise Architect Add-In for UMM 2.0
• A UMM runtime framework including integration tools and registry