From Strategy to Code: Achieving Strategical Alignment in Software Development Projects through Conceptual Modelling

Abstract

In this article we propose S2C, a strategy-to-code method ological approach to integrate organisational, business process, and information system modelling levels to support strategic alignment in software development. Through a model-driven approach and under the Conceptual-Model Programming paradigm, the proposal supports the semi-automatic generation of working software, as well as traceability among the modelling levels. Via a working example, we illustrate how strategic definitions can be traced into specific software components by the integration of three modelling methods: Lite*, for modelling strategic reaction to external influences, Communication Analysis, for business process modelling, and the OO-Method, for modelling the conceptual schema of the information system. We discuss how this approach not only supports strategic alignment, but fosters the elicitation of business process performance measurement requirements, as well as its relevance considering the business and code alignment of the most recent enterprise architecture and agile software development initiatives.