Research on conceptual modeling: Themes, topics, and introduction to the special issue

Conceptual modeling continues to evolve as researchers and practitioners reflect on the challenges of modeling and implementing data-intensive problems that appear in business and in science. These challenges of data modeling and representation are well-recognized in contemporary applications of big data, ontologies, and semantics, along with traditional efforts associated with methodologies, tools, and theory development. This introduction contains a review of some current research in conceptual modeling and identifies emerging themes. It also introduces the articles that comprise this special issue of papers from the 32nd International Conference on Conceptual Modeling (ER 2013).This article was supported, in part, by the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at the Georgia State University, the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University (EB-201313), and by the GEODAS-BI (TIN2012-37493-C03-03) project from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Competitivity

Evidence-based lean logic profiles for conceptual data modelling languages

Multiple logic-based reconstruction of conceptual data modelling languages such as EER, UML Class Diagrams, and ORM exists. They mainly cover various fragments of the languages and none are formalised such that the logic applies simultaneously for all three modelling language families as unifying mechanism. This hampers interchangeability, interoperability, and tooling support. In addition, due to the lack of a systematic design process of the logic used for the formalisation, hidden choices permeate the formalisations that have rendered them incompatible. We aim to address these problems, first, by structuring the logic design process in a methodological way. We generalise and extend the DSL design process to apply to logic language design more generally and, in particular, by incorporating an ontological analysis of language features in the process. Second, availing of this extended process, of evidence gathered of language feature usage, and of computational complexity insights from Description Logics (DL), we specify logic profiles taking into account the ontological commitments embedded in the languages. The profiles characterise the minimum logic structure needed to handle the semantics of conceptual models, enabling the development of interoperability tools. There is no known DL language that matches exactly the features of those profiles and the common core is small (in the tractable ALNI). Although hardly any inconsistencies can be derived with the profiles, it is promising for scalable runtime use of conceptual data models

Design and Evaluation of Domain-Specific Platforms and the Special Case of Digital Healthcare

The implementation of digital innovations in the healthcare sector is faced with different barriers and challenges. The complex system of regulations, the lack of interoperability, and highly dynamic interorganisational networks lead to missing widespread adoption of eHealth solutions. Digital platforms can help to overcome these barriers by providing a holistic infrastructure. They create a modularised foundation that innovators can use to create own innovations and provide them to demanders of digital solutions. As intermediaries, they can be accessed both by healthcare professionals and eHealth solution providers. Providers can offer their eHealth services via the platform. Healthcare professionals can use these services to create own interorganisational information systems. In the field of information systems research, effects and strategies for two-sided platforms are well researched and the potentials of eHealth platforms are also discussed. However, the organisational and technological design and methods for the construction of platforms are fewer questioned. Nonetheless, platform owners can benefit from implementation strategies and architectural guidance to create sustainable platforms and surrounding ecosystems. This doctoral thesis questions how domain-specific platforms can be designed systematically. Conducting a design-science research process, it develops both a modelling system and the Dresden Ecosystem Management Method (DREEM) to support the development of platforms in different domains. Furthermore, it describes the design characteristics of two-sided platforms in the healthcare sector and provides an evaluation approach to analyse the platforms’ ability to create a viable innovation ecosystem in the healthcare sector. The doctoral thesis contributes by providing methodical guidance for platform owners and researchers to design and evaluate digital platforms in different domains and improves the understanding of platform theory in the healthcare sector.:A. Synopsis of the Doctoral Thesis 1. Introduction 2. Foundational Considerations 3. Requirements for Design Artefacts and Knowledge 4. Structure of the Doctoral Thesis 5. Conclusion B. Paper 1 - Governance Guidelines for Digital Healthcare Ecosystems C. Paper 2 - Revise your eHealth Platform! D. Paper 3 - Business Model Open ”E-Health-Platform” E. Paper 4 - Modelling Ecosystems in Information Systems F. Paper 5 - Designing Industrial Symbiosis Platforms G. Paper 6 - Management of Digital Ecosystems with DREEM H. Paper 7 - Guiding the Development of Digital Ecosystems I. Paper 8 - Towards Maintenance Analytics Ecosystems J. Paper 9- Sustainability of E-Health-Projects K. Paper 10 - ISO 11354-2 for the Evaluation of eHealth-Platform

TLAD 2010 Proceedings:8th international workshop on teaching, learning and assesment of databases (TLAD)

This is the eighth in the series of highly successful international workshops on the Teaching, Learning and Assessment of Databases (TLAD 2010), which once again is held as a workshop of BNCOD 2010 - the 27th International Information Systems Conference. TLAD 2010 is held on the 28th June at the beautiful Dudhope Castle at the Abertay University, just before BNCOD, and hopes to be just as successful as its predecessors.The teaching of databases is central to all Computing Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems and Information Technology courses, and this year, the workshop aims to continue the tradition of bringing together both database teachers and researchers, in order to share good learning, teaching and assessment practice and experience, and further the growing community amongst database academics. As well as attracting academics from the UK community, the workshop has also been successful in attracting academics from the wider international community, through serving on the programme committee, and attending and presenting papers.This year, the workshop includes an invited talk given by Richard Cooper (of the University of Glasgow) who will present a discussion and some results from the Database Disciplinary Commons which was held in the UK over the academic year. Due to the healthy number of high quality submissions this year, the workshop will also present seven peer reviewed papers, and six refereed poster papers. Of the seven presented papers, three will be presented as full papers and four as short papers. These papers and posters cover a number of themes, including: approaches to teaching databases, e.g. group centered and problem based learning; use of novel case studies, e.g. forensics and XML data; techniques and approaches for improving teaching and student learning processes; assessment techniques, e.g. peer review; methods for improving students abilities to develop database queries and develop E-R diagrams; and e-learning platforms for supporting teaching and learning

TLAD 2010 Proceedings:8th international workshop on teaching, learning and assesment of databases (TLAD)

This is the eighth in the series of highly successful international workshops on the Teaching, Learning and Assessment of Databases (TLAD 2010), which once again is held as a workshop of BNCOD 2010 - the 27th International Information Systems Conference. TLAD 2010 is held on the 28th June at the beautiful Dudhope Castle at the Abertay University, just before BNCOD, and hopes to be just as successful as its predecessors.The teaching of databases is central to all Computing Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems and Information Technology courses, and this year, the workshop aims to continue the tradition of bringing together both database teachers and researchers, in order to share good learning, teaching and assessment practice and experience, and further the growing community amongst database academics. As well as attracting academics from the UK community, the workshop has also been successful in attracting academics from the wider international community, through serving on the programme committee, and attending and presenting papers.This year, the workshop includes an invited talk given by Richard Cooper (of the University of Glasgow) who will present a discussion and some results from the Database Disciplinary Commons which was held in the UK over the academic year. Due to the healthy number of high quality submissions this year, the workshop will also present seven peer reviewed papers, and six refereed poster papers. Of the seven presented papers, three will be presented as full papers and four as short papers. These papers and posters cover a number of themes, including: approaches to teaching databases, e.g. group centered and problem based learning; use of novel case studies, e.g. forensics and XML data; techniques and approaches for improving teaching and student learning processes; assessment techniques, e.g. peer review; methods for improving students abilities to develop database queries and develop E-R diagrams; and e-learning platforms for supporting teaching and learning

An ontology-driven unifying metamodel of UML Class Diagrams, EER, and ORM2

Software interoperability and application integration can be realized \linebreak through using their respective conceptual data models, which may be represented in different conceptual data modeling languages. Such modeling languages seem similar, yet are known to be distinct. Several translations between subsets of the languages' features exist, but there is no unifying framework that respects most language features of the static structural components and constraints. We aim to fill this gap. To this end, we designed a common and unified ontology-driven metamodel of the static, structural components and constraints in such a way that it unifies ER, EER, UML Class Diagrams v2.4.1, and ORM and ORM2 such that each one is a proper fragment of the consistent metamodel. The paper also presents some notable insights into the relatively few common entities and constraints, an analysis on roles, relationships, and attributes, and other modeling motivations are discussed. We describe two practical use cases of the metamodel, being a quantitative assessment of the entities of 30 models in ER/EER, UML, and ORM/ORM2, and a qualitative evaluation of inter-model assertions

A bottom-up interdisciplinary research approach for thermal sensitive urban design in an era of climate change - the case of Lisbon

Tese de Doutoramento em Urbanismo, com a especialização em Urbanismo apresentada na Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Doutor.Na cidade contemporânea, factores como as elevadas temperaturas e a intensidade dos efeitos da ilha de calor em meio urbano, têm vindo a revelar proeminente desconforto térmico e importantes preocupações com a saúde durante os períodos anuais de maior estímulo térmico. Para além destes riscos já existentes e inerentes ao clima urbano, as projecções das alterações climáticas apontam para uma exacerbação destes factores de risco ao longo do Séc. XXI. Muito embora as avaliações e outputs top-down tenham revelado informação de carácter imperativo relativamente a tais fenómenos, a emergência da agenda de adaptação às alterações climáticas veio também incentivar a comunidade científica internacional a maturar e a desenvolver abordagens bottom-up mais incisivas, com vista a fazer frente aos factores de risco locais. Assim sendo, a perspectiva de "localidade" tem vindo a ganhar um novo significado para disciplinas como o urbanismo e o design urbano, quando confrontados com aspectos como a segurança, o conforto térmico humano e a prosperidade do meio urbano contemporâneo. Todavia e, atendendo ao seu carácter emergente, as abordagens bottom-up ainda se encontram numa fase inicial e, consequentemente, relativamente limitadas, tendo em conta a distância existente entre a teoria e a aplicação prática. Como resposta, esta tese efectua uma abordagem bottom-up e uma reflexão acerca do modo como a união entre a climatologia urbana e o design do espaço público urbano, enquanto campos distintos, pode ser fortalecida. Tal fortalecimento visa investigar de forma directa sobre a possibilidade de "localmente", o conforto térmico humano em meio urbano exterior, ser melhorado através de práticas interdisciplinares apoiadas no conhecimento científico. Tendo em consideração o caso de Lisboa, esta investigação analisa a forma como esta abordagem pode suplantar questões como a incerteza climática/aplicacional e, consequentemente: (i) traduzir-se em linhas de orientação para o urbanismo e para o design urbano local, que poderão ser aplicadas/implementadas em múltiplas circunstâncias e contextos urbanos; visando ainda, (ii) auxiliar especialistas "não-climatólogos" a realizar levantamentos bioclimáticos (baseados em dados locais e/ou na informação obtida a partir da estação meteorológica) com o intuito de determinar/atenuar os factores de risco de stress associados ao calor e ao frio num determinado contexto exterior. Consequentemente e, focado numa abordagem bottom-up que para além disso considera outputs relevantes a partir de avaliações top-down, o design do espaço público é retratado como sendo uma ferramenta indispensável, com vista a assegurar "localmente" um meio urbano activo, confortável e seguro, tanto no presente, quanto num futuro que se afigura incerto.ABSTRACT: Within the existing city, factors such as elevated urban temperatures and intensities of urban heat island effects are already revealing prominent thermal discomfort and health concerns during annual periods of more accentuated climatic stimuli. In addition to these exiting risks upon the urban microclimate, climate change projections indicate further exacerbations of such risks factors throughout the course of the twenty-first century. Although top-down assessments and disseminations have revealed imperative information with regards to such phenomena, the emergence of the climate change adaptation agenda has also arguably propelled the scientific international community to further mature bottom-up approaches to address local risk factors. As such, the perspective of ‘locality’ has been one which has gained new meaning for disciplines such as urban planning and design when considering the climatic safety, human thermal comfort, and prosperity of the contemporary public realm. Nevertheless, and resultant of its emerging nature, bottom-up approaches are still somewhat limited in terms of its existing breadth between theory and application and practice. As a response, this thesis undertakes a bottom-up approach and discusses how the union between the individual fields of urban climatology and public space design can be fortified. Such a fortification is directly aimed at investigating how local outdoor human thermal comfort can be improved through an interdisciplinary practice which is backed by scientific know-how and practice. Considering the case of Lisbon, this research deliberates upon how such an approach can overcome issues of climatic and applicative uncertainty, and can: (i) be translated into local design and planning guidelines which can be applied within numerous different urban circumstances; and (ii) aid non-climatological experts to undertake bioclimatic surveys (based both upon site and/or meteorological station data) to determine, and attenuate, local heat and cold stress risk factors within a particular outdoor context. Accordingly, and centred upon a bottom-up approach, which moreover considers important disseminations from top-down assessments, public space design is portrayed as an imperative tool to locally ensure an active, comfortable and safe public realm, both presently, and in an uncertain future.N/

Design of Data-Driven Decision Support Systems for Business Process Standardization

Increasingly dynamic environments require organizations to engage in business process standardization (BPS) in response to environmental change. However, BPS depends on numerous contingency factors from different layers of the organization, such as strategy, business models (BMs), business processes (BPs) and application systems that need to be well-understood (“comprehended”) and taken into account by decision-makers for selecting appropriate standard BP designs that fit the organization. Besides, common approaches to BPS are non-data-driven and frequently do not exploit increasingly avail-able data in organizations. Therefore, this thesis addresses the following research ques-tion: “How to design data-driven decision support systems to increase the comprehen-sion of contingency factors on business process standardization?”. Theoretically grounded in organizational contingency theory (OCT), this thesis address-es the research question by conducting three design science research (DSR) projects to design data-driven decision support systems (DSSs) for SAP R/3 and S/4 HANA ERP systems that increase comprehension of BPS contingency factors. The thesis conducts the DSR projects at an industry partner within the context of a BPS and SAP S/4 HANA transformation program at a global manufacturing corporation. DSR project 1 designs a data-driven “Business Model Mining” system that automatical-ly “mines” BMs from data in application systems and represents results in an interactive “Business Model Canvas” (BMC) BI dashboard to comprehend BM-related BPS con-tingency factors. The project derives generic design requirements and a blueprint con-ceptualization for BMM systems and suggests an open, standardized reference data model for BMM. The project implements the software artifact “Business Model Miner” in Microsoft Azure / PowerBI and demonstrates technical feasibility by using data from an educational SAP S/4 HANA system, an open reference dataset, and three real-life SAP R/3 ERP systems. A field evaluation with 21 managers at the industry partner finds differences between tool results and BMCs created by managers and thus the po-tential for a complementary role of BMM tools to enrich the comprehension of BMs. A further controlled laboratory experiment with 142 students finds significant beneficial impacts on subjective and objective comprehension in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, and relative efficiency. Second, DSR project 2 designs a data-driven process mining DSS “KeyPro” to semi-automatically discover and prioritize the set of BPs occurring in an organization from log data to concentrate BPS initiatives on important BPs given limited organizational resources. The project derives objective and quantifiable BP importance metrics from BM and BPM literature and implements KeyPro for SAP R/3 ERP and S/4 HANA sys-tems in Microsoft SQL Server / Azure and interactive PowerBI dashboards. A field evaluation with 52 managers compares BPs detected manually by decision-makers against BPs discovered by KeyPro and reveals significant differences and a complemen-tary role of the artifact to deliver additional insights into the set of BPs in the organiza-tion. Finally, a controlled laboratory experiment with 30 students identifies the dash-boards with the lowest comprehension for further development. Third, OCT requires organizations to select a standard BP design that matches contin-gencies. Thus, DSR project 3 designs a process mining DSS to select a standard BP from a repository of different alternative designs based on the similarity of BPS contin-gency factors between the as-is process and the to-be standard processes. DSR project 3 thus derives four different process model variants for representing BPS contingency factors that vary according to determinant factors of process model comprehension (PMC) identified in PMC literature. A controlled laboratory evaluation with 150 stu-dents identifies significant differences in PMC. Based on laboratory findings, the DSS is implemented in the BPM platform “Apromore” to select standard BP reference mod-els from the SAP Best Practices Explorer for SAP S/4 HANA and applied for the pur-chase-to-pay and order-to-cash process of a manufacturing company