Enterprise modeling (EM) applies abstraction in creating simplified representations of complex realities. Unfortunately, both the realities and the task of creating valid conceptual representations bring daunting challenges. Complexity is increasing, e.g. the transition of conventional production towards product-service systems operating in heterogeneous enterprise ecosystems. Simultaneously, modeling methods and tools tend to be formal and inflexible, and often are designed for automated model processing rather than for helping business professionals understand business situations. The result is the current, unsatisfying state of enterprise modeling, in which models can be developed and used directly only by modeling experts and are largely impenetrable to non-experts. This paper presents a set of principles that suggest directions for progress toward genuinely flexible, controllable, and usable enterprise models. The principles accept the relaxation of some expectations about enterprise modeling while trying to maintain rigor and completeness in models.

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