Enterprise Modelling and Information Systems Architectures (EMISAJ)

Multi-level modeling (MLM) represents a significant extension to the traditional two-level object-oriented paradigm with the potential to dramatically improve upon the utility, reliability and maintainability of models. In contrast to conventional approaches, multi-level approaches allow for an unbounded number of classification levels and introduce modeling concepts that foster expressiveness, reuse and controlled adaptability. A key aspect of the MLM paradigm is the use of entities that are simultaneously types and instances, a feature which has consequences for conceptual modeling, language engineering and for the development of model-based software systems.

Research into MLM has increased significantly over the last few years, manifesting itself in lively debates in the literature, seven international workshops (MULTI 2014-2020), a published journal theme issue (SoSyM) (with a further one in preparation), a Dagstuhl Seminar (in 2017 [1]) and an increasing number of tools and languages, such as DPF workbench, GModel, Melanee, Meta-Depth, MultEcore, Nivel, OMME, DeepTelos, ML2, and XModeller (see more at [2]). Successful applications of MLM have been reported in domains such as software engineering, process modeling and enterprise modeling.

This special issue follows up on the MULTI Workshop 2019/2020 Process Challenge [3], which in turn was devised as a follow-up to the Bicycle Challenge used in MULTI 2017/2018 [4]. The process modeling domain was selected given its relevance to the enterprise domain and because of the interesting challenges created when attempting to reuse high-level process descriptions.