Global distributed engineering—integrating different process paradigms

The article describes a concept of an open system architecture that is based on a concept for the flexible integration of different integration systems and their respective paradigms. The architecture defines four layers: the topmost layer incorporates the definition of the conceptual engineering process. The bottom most layer contains the existing systems as they are. In between are two layers of services: basic services to map the fundamental objects and abilities of each system to a generic object model and on top of that process-oriented services which serve as a toolbox to define the to be supported process enabling the paradigm-independent integration of engineering processes.