Abstract
This paper explores the use of "process-related models" - such as Enterprise Architecture (EA) models - as non-ontological resources (NORs) in the Ontology Engineering (OE) trajectory. These models are commonly available in enterprise repositories in process-rich social domains (e.g., e-Government, finance, software engineering, manufacturing), and serve as valuable sources of consolidated knowledge. We focus on the role of EA models in supporting what we are naming here Early Ontology Engineering, comprising the phases of purpose and scope identification as well as the identification of functional requirements for creating domain ontologies. This is because these models characterize, among other aspects, the organizational context and the business motivations/goals. Therefore, they may facilitate the identification of intended uses/purpose of an ontology to be integrated to the EA, as a means to address goals of the organization stakeholders. We show how this approach is being applied in a real-world e-Government project in the Public Security Domain.