A model is improved for predicting the formation enthalpies of binary transition metal systems and testified by comparing with the recently reported experimental data. The predictions by the improved model are in better agreement with 362 experimental data while comparing with Miedema's theory. In addition, the predictive ability has also been addressed by comparing with ab initio calculations. A systematic analysis shows that the improved model is a reliable semi-quantitative method for predicting the formation enthalpy of intermetallic compounds with a reasonable statistical precise. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.