On the design of enterprise ontology-driven software development

Enterprise agility depends, largely, on software adaptability. This thesis investigates how to develop enterprise software that is flexible by nature and supports its end-users in their requirements, without sacrificing development speed or traceability. A model-drive approach is chosen where software is generated from models. DEMO ontological models are chosen as the starting point as they claim to be complete and consistent. In order to further increase traceability in the software design and development process, a framework is designed to make all design decisions explicit. In four practice-driven experiments, it has been shown that such an approach towards ‘enterprise ontology-driven software development’ is feasible and supports the identified needs. This research has laid the foundations to create the next generation of low-code composable platforms that support non-technical people to easily, quickly, and cost-efficiently create adaptable software that supports changing enterprises.