A study on the impact of the level of participation in enterprise modeling

Abstract Participatory enterprise modeling (PEM) is presumed to have a positive impact on commitment, ownership feelings and further appraisals by domain experts with respect to the model. However, there has not been a lot of research into whether PEM actually has the desired effects. In this paper we report on an investigation of the effects of three settings with different levels of involving domain experts: an overall model was created (1) from four individual interviews, (2) from four individual models, or (3) in a joint meeting of domain and modeling consultants. The results show that the non-participatory interview setting led to less favorable appraisals, e.g., the possibility to participate and the value of the model were perceived as lower and the contribution of the modeling consultants was perceived as higher. Our findings should help practitioners in weighing possible benefits of participatory enterprise modeling against the organizational effort and monetary cost it involves.