Ontological Evaluation of Conceptual Models

The objective of this paper is to present a philosophically sound approach to conceptual model evaluation. Accordingly, the ontological evaluation of conceptual models is enriched with a linguistic interpretivist perspective. The need for such an approach to evaluation is justified by the substantial economic importance of conceptual models. The quality of a conceptual model has a significant impact on other IT artefacts and, thus, on the costs of IT projects. However, little research has so far focused on their evaluation. In the course of this paper, we develop a framework which describes the current state of research and recognizes neglected research fields. With the aid of this framework we identify a notable shortcoming in conceptual model evaluation research, especially with respect to philosophically sound evaluation procedures. Based on these findings we address the following research questions: What are the shortcomings in current evaluation research, what are the merits of ‘ontological evaluation’ in this context, and how can the linguistic interpretivist approach help to form a comprehensive and philosophically sound conceptual model evaluation approach

An Ontological Analysis of Use Case Modeling Grammar

Use case modeling is a popular technique for representing the functional requirements of an information system. The simple graphical notation of use case diagrams, accompanied by well-structured narrative descriptions, makes use case models fairly easy to read and understand. This simplicity, however, belies the challenges associated with creating use case models. There is little, if any, theory underlying use cases, and little more than loose guidelines for creating a complete, consistent, and integrated set of use cases. We argue that there is a need for more rigor and consistency in the grammatical constructs used in use case modeling. Toward this end, we present a theoretically- and practice-based assessment of use case modeling constructs, and make recommendations for future research to improve and strengthen this technique

A formal theory of conceptual modeling universals

Conceptual Modeling is a discipline of great relevance to several areas in Computer Science. In a series of papers [1,2,3] we have been using the General Ontological Language (GOL) and its underlying upper level ontology, proposed in [4,5], to evaluate the ontological correctness of conceptual models and to develop guidelines for how the constructs of a modeling language (UML) should be used in conceptual modeling. In this paper, we focus on the modeling metaconcepts of classifiers and objects from an ontological point of view. We use a philosophically and psychologically well-founded theory of universals to propose a UML profile for Ontology Representation and Conceptual Modeling. The formal semantics of the proposed modeling elements is presented in a language of modal logics with quantification restricted to Sortal universals

Ontological foundations for structural conceptual models

In this thesis, we aim at contributing to the theory of conceptual modeling and ontology representation. Our main objective here is to provide ontological foundations for the most fundamental concepts in conceptual modeling. These foundations comprise a number of ontological theories, which are built on established work on philosophical ontology, cognitive psychology, philosophy of language and linguistics. Together these theories amount to a system of categories and formal relations known as a foundational ontolog

The use of the concept of event in enterprise ontologies and requirements engineering literature.

The concept of event is used in a lot of meanings. It can be the possible outcome of doing something (probability theory), it can be a business transaction (accounting), or just a plain happening. In software engineering, the concept of event is also used a lot. It is used to accomplish loose coupling between software components or to realise interaction between different services. There is however not a consensus on the meaning of `an event'. In enterprise ontologies, an event is defined as a happening at one point in time, or as an activity which takes time to complete. In requirement engineering, the same different uses can be found, together with an event as a request for something that needs to be done. These differences can also be found in implementation. All these distinct purposes of the word event make it difficult to integrate and use different requirement engineering techniques. Comparison or transformations between models drawn in different grammars is impossible because of the ambiguity of the concept of event. We define three meanings for an event that are used by enterprise ontologies and requirement engineering techniques: an achievement (happening at one point in time), an activity (happening over time) and a request (a demand for something that needs to be done). We also identify a missing link between real economic events, the events defined in the requirements model and the events used in implementation.Requirements modelling; Enterprise ontology; Process modelling; Dynamic; Event;

Response to Wyssusek’s “On Ontological Foundations of Conceptual Modelling”

Abstract not available

Integrating Multi-Perspective Views into Ontological Analysis

It is argued that contribution to the theory and practice of the analysis and design of information systems and services within organizational contexts requires the following steps. First, an underlying theoretical domain is needed. Second, the constructs of this domain have to be communicated using some commonly understood “language.” Third, these constructs have to be applied to purposes that are of interest to users, particularly business users. Finally, this application needs to take into consideration the constraints that users work under and, particularly in business, the need for cost effectiveness. It is claimed that the models developed by Bunge, Wand and Weber (BWW models), in particular the representation model, provide a good starting point for this theoretical foundation. In order to communicate the BWW models, an ER-based meta model for the BWW representation model is suggested. A common issue about some of the results with a number of the ontological analyses that have been done so far is the lack of relevance and cost effectiveness. This situation suggests that integrating perspectives into the process of ontological analysis would improve the usefulness of the results to users. Specifically, ensuring the relevance of the results to the different purposes of different users would improve the usefulness of the ontological analysis to users of modeling grammars. Accordingly, the application of a third dimension—the cost effectiveness dimension—to the analysis of modeling grammars using the BWW representation model is investigated. Specifically, the requirements of activity-based costing systems are analyzed as a first example of a perspective

Framework for Describing a Theoretical Perspective: Application to the Bunge-Wand-Weber Ontology and General Systems Theory

A Delphi study reported in Business Information System Engineering (BISE) in 2015 identified “rethink the theoretical foundations of the IS discipline” as a grand challenge for the discipline. Pursuit of that challenge calls for developing a framework for describing a theoretical perspective (an FDTP) because a coherent theoretical foundation ideally should be based on a well-articulated theoretical perspective. This paper defines theoretical perspective and presents a proposed FDTP that consists of 25 topics divided into 7 categories. It illustrates the use of the FDTP by applying it to the Bunge-Wand-Weber (BWW) ontology and to general systems theory (GST), two sets of ideas that could be related to a theoretical foundation for IS. Application of the FDTP reveals topic areas that the BWW ontology and GST cover and others that they do not cover. Subsequent sections explain how the FDTP was produced and suggest follow-on research

Associations and Mutual Properties - An Experimental Assessment

Associations are a widely used construct of object-oriented languages. However, the meaning of associations for conceptual modelling of application domains remains unclear. Ontological considerations in past research suggest that associations are related to the concept of mutual properties. Specifically, previous research has suggested that mutual properties, not associations, should be modelled, and guidelines for doing this in UML have been offered. This paper presents the results of an experimental study, which suggest that this guidance does in fact lead to improved models