An Ontology-Based Process for Domain-Specific Visual Language Design

Em Modelagem Conceitual, tem ocorrido um interesse crescente em Linguagens de Modelagem Visuais Específicas de Domínio ( Domain-Specific Visual Modeling Languages (DSVMLs)) e no suporte que elas provêem para compr eensão do domínio de um problema e comunicação entre modelado res e interessados. Assim, é importante providenciar diretrizes para o design de DSVMLs. Por muitos anos, o foco de pesquisa tem sido na sintaxe abstrata, enqu anto a sintaxe concreta tem recebido menor atenção. Isso é um infortúnio, pois a sintaxe visual impacta significativamente a capacidade de comunicação e de resolução de problemas de modelos conceituais Um dos trabalhos mais disseminados para análise e d esign de aspectos visuais de linguagens de modelagem é a Física das Notações (Po N). PoN define um conjunto de princípios usado para analisar e projetar notaçõ es visuais cognitivamente eficientes. Contudo, PoN tem lacunas, tais como: (i ) Falta um método para aplicar seus princípios; (ii) O design de símbolos não cria sistematicamente símbolos que refletem entidades do mundo real. Nesta pesquisa, nós apresentamos a Física das Notações Sistematizada (PoN-S) para resolver a lacuna (i). PoN-S estabelece um con junto ordenado de atividades de design e sugere quando aplicar os princípios de PoN . Ela também propõe grupos de princípios de PoN. Outra maneira de melhorar a qualidade de DSVMLs é a aplicação de teorias ontológicas, mas ontologias podem ser aplicadas com sucesso no design de sintaxes concretas como tem sido aplicadas para a s intaxe abstrata? Guizzardi (2013) propoem diretrizes ontológicas baseadas na O ntologia de Fundamentação Unificada (UFO) para auxiliar no design de notações visuais. Contudo, tais diretrizes também tem lacunas: (iii) São diretrizes isoladas e não parte de um processo de design; (iv) O conjunto de distinções ontológicas, é restrito; (v) As diretrizes ontológicas são restritas a serem aplicadas no esta belecimento dos símbolos de uma DSVMLs. Para resolver as lacunas (ii) até (v) nós combinamo s as diretrizes ontológicas baseadas em UFO com PoN-S, originando a Física das Notações Ontologizada e Sistematizada (PoNTO-S) . PoNTO-S é um processo de design sistematizado par a sintaxes concretas de DSVMLs que conecta a sintaxe concreta com o significado do mundo-real (isto é, o significado ontológico). Este projeto é um processo de Design Science com di ferentes iterações, cada uma produzindo artefatos próprios. O problema de design é o design de sintaxes concretas de DSVMLs. Os artefatos são melhorias de duas soluções existentes: PoN e diretrizes ontológicas baseadas em UFO. PoN-S e PoNTO-S são classificados como teorias de design, visto serem p rocesso de design. Nós também investimos em estudos empíricos. Foram executados e studos exploratórios para dar suporte as indicações coletadas durante a revisão d e literatura e guiar algumas decisões. Após desenvolver versões de PoN-S e PoNTO -S nós aplicamos novos estudos empíricos que geraram evidências para concl uirmos que PoN-S e PoNTO-S são utéis, e que tais abordagens podem evoluir, dan do origem a abordagens ainda mais úteis

Comparing traditional conceptual modeling with ontology-driven conceptual modeling: An empirical study

[EN] This paper conducts an empirical study that explores the differences between adopting a traditional conceptual modeling (TCM) technique and an ontology-driven conceptual modeling (ODCM) technique with the objective to understand and identify in which modeling situations an ODCM technique can prove beneficial compared to a TCM technique. More specifically, we asked ourselves if there exist any meaningful differences in the resulting conceptual model and the effort spent to create such model between novice modelers trained in an ontology-driven conceptual modeling technique and novice modelers trained in a traditional conceptual modeling technique. To answer this question, we discuss previous empirical research efforts and distill these efforts into two hypotheses. Next, these hypotheses are tested in a rigorously developed experiment, where a total of 100 students from two different Universities participated. The findings of our empirical study confirm that there do exist meaningful differences between adopting the two techniques. We observed that novice modelers applying the ODCM technique arrived at higher quality models compared to novice modelers applying the TCM technique. More specifically, the results of the empirical study demonstrated that it is advantageous to apply an ODCM technique over an TCM when having to model the more challenging and advanced facets of a certain domain or scenario. Moreover, we also did not find any significant difference in effort between applying these two techniques. Finally, we specified our results in three findings that aim to clarify the obtained results. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.This research has been funded by the Ghent University Special Research Fund (BOF 01N02014) and the National Bank of Belgium.Verdonck, M.; Gailly, F.; Pergl, R.; Guizzardi, G.; Franco Martins, B.; Pastor López, O. (2019). Comparing traditional conceptual modeling with ontology-driven conceptual modeling: An empirical study. Information Systems. 81:92-103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.is.2018.11.009S921038

O4OA Specification

This document is the reference ontology specification for the Ontology for Ontological Analysis (O4OA) version 2.6.This work has been developed under the project Digital Knowledge Graph – Adaptable Analytics API with the financial support of Accenture LTD, the Generalitat Valenciana through the CoMoDiD project (CIPROM/2021/023), the Spanish State Research Agency through the DELFOS (PDC2021-121243-I00) and SREC (PID2021-123824OB-I00) projects, MICIN/AEI/10.13039/501 100011033 and co-financed with ERDF and the European Union Next Generation EU/PRTR.Franco Martins Souza, B.; Guizzardi, R.; Pastor López, O. (2023). O4OA Specification. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/19672

A COMMITMENT-BASED REFERENCE ONTOLOGY FOR SERVICE: HARMONIZING SERVICE PERSPECTIVES

Nowadays, the notion of service has been widely adopted in the practice of economic sectors (e.g., Service, Manufacturing, and Extractive sectors), as well as, in the research focus of various disciplines (e.g., Marketing, Business, and Computer Science). Due to that, a number of research initiatives (e.g., service ontologies, conceptual models, and theories) have tried to understand and characterize the complex notion of service. However, due to particular views of these disciplines and economic sectors, a number of different characterizations of service (e.g., service as interaction, service as co-creation of value, and service as capability / manifestation of competence, among others) have been proposed. The existence of these various non-harmonized characterizations, and the focus on a terminological debate about the service concept, instead of about the service phenomena from a broad perspective, make the establishment of a unified body of knowledge for service difficult. This limitation impacts, e.g., the establishment of unified conceptualization for supporting the smooth alignment between Business and IT views in service-oriented enterprise architecture (SoEA), and the design and usage of service modeling languages. In this thesis we define a theoretical foundation for service based on the notion of service commitment and claims as basic elements in the characterization of service relations along service life-cycle phases (service offer, service negotiation, and service delivery). As discussed in this work, this theoretical foundation is capable of harmonizing a number of service perspectives found in the literature. Such theoretical foundation is specified in a well-founded core reference ontology, named UFO-S, which was designed by adopting a sound ontological engineering apparatus (mainly, a well-founded ontology representation language, OntoUML, and approaches of model verification and model validation). As a kind of theory, UFO-S was applied in the analysis of SoEA structuring principles in order to define a commitment-based SoEA view, which remarks social aspects inherent in service relations usually underexplored in widely adopted service-oriented approaches (such as SOA-RM by OASIS, ITIL, and ArchiMate). Based on this, UFO-S was also applied in an ontological analysis of service modeling at ArchiMates Business layer. Such ontological analysis showed some limitations concerned to semantic ambiguity and lack of expressiveness for representing service offerings (and type thereof) and service agreements in SoEA. In order to address these limitations, three service modeling patterns (service offering type pattern, service offering pattern, and service agreement pattern) were proposed taking as basis UFO-S. The usefulness of these patterns for addressing these limitations was evidentiated by means of an empirical evaluation. Finally, we can say that, beyond offering a broad and well-founded theoretical foundation for service able to harmonize service perspectives, UFO-S presented benefits as a reference model in the analysis of SoEA structuring principles, and in the (re)design of service modeling languages

Representing Dynamic Invariants in Ontologically Well-Founded Conceptual Models

Conceptual models often capture the invariant aspects of the phenomena we perceive. These invariants may be considered static when they refer to structures we perceive in phenomena at a particular point in time or dynamic/temporal when they refer to regularities across different points in time. While static invariants have received significant attention, dynamics enjoy marginal support in widely-employed techniques such as UML and OCL. This thesis aims at addressing this gap by proposing a technique for the representation of dynamic invariants of subject domains in UML-based conceptual models. For that purpose, a temporal extension of OCL is proposed. It enriches the ontologically well-founded OntoUML profile and enables the expression of a variety of (arbitrary) temporal constraints. The extension is fully implemented in the tool for specification, verification and simulation of enriched OntoUML models

Ontology-driven conceptual modeling: A'systematic literature mapping and review

All rights reserved. Ontology-driven conceptual modeling (ODCM) is still a relatively new research domain in the field of information systems and there is still much discussion on how the research in ODCM should be performed and what the focus of this research should be. Therefore, this article aims to critically survey the existing literature in order to assess the kind of research that has been performed over the years, analyze the nature of the research contributions and establish its current state of the art by positioning, evaluating and interpreting relevant research to date that is related to ODCM. To understand and identify any gaps and research opportunities, our literature study is composed of both a systematic mapping study and a systematic review study. The mapping study aims at structuring and classifying the area that is being investigated in order to give a general overview of the research that has been performed in the field. A review study on the other hand is a more thorough and rigorous inquiry and provides recommendations based on the strength of the found evidence. Our results indicate that there are several research gaps that should be addressed and we further composed several research opportunities that are possible areas for future research

Understanding the Code of Life: Holistic Conceptual Modeling of the Genome

[ES] En las últimas décadas, los avances en la tecnología de secuenciación han producido cantidades significativas de datos genómicos, hecho que ha revolucionado nuestra comprensión de la biología. Sin embargo, la cantidad de datos generados ha superado con creces nuestra capacidad para interpretarlos. Descifrar el código de la vida es un gran reto. A pesar de los numerosos avances realizados, nuestra comprensión del mismo sigue siendo mínima, y apenas estamos empezando a descubrir todo su potencial, por ejemplo, en áreas como la medicina de precisión o la farmacogenómica. El objetivo principal de esta tesis es avanzar en nuestra comprensión de la vida proponiendo una aproximación holística mediante un enfoque basado en modelos que consta de tres artefactos: i) un esquema conceptual del genoma, ii) un método para su aplicación en el mundo real, y iii) el uso de ontologías fundacionales para representar el conocimiento del dominio de una forma más precisa y explícita. Las dos primeras contribuciones se han validado mediante la implementación de sistemas de información genómicos basados en modelos conceptuales. La tercera contribución se ha validado mediante experimentos empíricos que han evaluado si el uso de ontologías fundacionales conduce a una mejor comprensión del dominio genómico. Los artefactos generados ofrecen importantes beneficios. En primer lugar, se han generado procesos de gestión de datos más eficientes, lo que ha permitido mejorar los procesos de extracción de conocimientos. En segundo lugar, se ha logrado una mejor comprensión y comunicación del dominio.[CA] En les últimes dècades, els avanços en la tecnologia de seqüenciació han produït quantitats significatives de dades genòmiques, fet que ha revolucionat la nostra comprensió de la biologia. No obstant això, la quantitat de dades generades ha superat amb escreix la nostra capacitat per a interpretar-los. Desxifrar el codi de la vida és un gran repte. Malgrat els nombrosos avanços realitzats, la nostra comprensió del mateix continua sent mínima, i a penes estem començant a descobrir tot el seu potencial, per exemple, en àrees com la medicina de precisió o la farmacogenómica. L'objectiu principal d'aquesta tesi és avançar en la nostra comprensió de la vida proposant una aproximació holística mitjançant un enfocament basat en models que consta de tres artefactes: i) un esquema conceptual del genoma, ii) un mètode per a la seua aplicació en el món real, i iii) l'ús d'ontologies fundacionals per a representar el coneixement del domini d'una forma més precisa i explícita. Les dues primeres contribucions s'han validat mitjançant la implementació de sistemes d'informació genòmics basats en models conceptuals. La tercera contribució s'ha validat mitjançant experiments empírics que han avaluat si l'ús d'ontologies fundacionals condueix a una millor comprensió del domini genòmic. Els artefactes generats ofereixen importants beneficis. En primer lloc, s'han generat processos de gestió de dades més eficients, la qual cosa ha permés millorar els processos d'extracció de coneixements. En segon lloc, s'ha aconseguit una millor comprensió i comunicació del domini.[EN] Over the last few decades, advances in sequencing technology have produced significant amounts of genomic data, which has revolutionised our understanding of biology. However, the amount of data generated has far exceeded our ability to interpret it. Deciphering the code of life is a grand challenge. Despite our progress, our understanding of it remains minimal, and we are just beginning to uncover its full potential, for instance, in areas such as precision medicine or pharmacogenomics. The main objective of this thesis is to advance our understanding of life by proposing a holistic approach, using a model-based approach, consisting of three artifacts: i) a conceptual schema of the genome, ii) a method for its application in the real-world, and iii) the use of foundational ontologies to represent domain knowledge in a more unambiguous and explicit way. The first two contributions have been validated by implementing genome information systems based on conceptual models. The third contribution has been validated by empirical experiments assessing whether using foundational ontologies leads to a better understanding of the genomic domain. The artifacts generated offer significant benefits. First, more efficient data management processes were produced, leading to better knowledge extraction processes. Second, a better understanding and communication of the domain was achieved.Las fructíferas discusiones y los resultados derivados de los proyectos INNEST2021 /57, MICIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, PID2021-123824OB-I00, CIPROM/2021/023 y PDC2021- 121243-I00 han contribuido en gran medida a la calidad final de este tesis.García Simón, A. (2022). Understanding the Code of Life: Holistic Conceptual Modeling of the Genome [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/19143

Representing Organizational Structures in Enterprise Architecture: an Ontology-based Approach

Enterprise Architecture (EA) promotes the establishment of a holistic view of the structure and way of working of an organization. One of the aspects covered in EA is associated with the organizations active structure, which concerns who undertakes organizational activities. Several approaches have been proposed in order to provide a means for representing enterprise architecture, among which ARIS, RM-ODP, UPDM and ArchiMate. Despite the acceptance by the community, existing approaches focus on different purposes, have limitations on their conceptual scopes and some have no real world semantics well-defined. Besides modeling approaches, many ontology approaches have been proposed in order to describe the active structure domain, including the ontologies in the SUPER Project, TOVE, Enterprise Ontology and W3C Org Ontology. Although specified for semantic grounding and meaning negotiation, some of proposed approaches have specific purposes and limited coverage. In addition, some of them are not defined using formal languages and others are specified using languages without well-defined semantics. This work presents a well-founded reference ontology for the organizational domain. The organizational reference ontology presented covers the basic aspects discussed in the organizational literature, such as division of labor, social relations and classification of structuring units. Further, it also encompasses the organizational aspects defined in existing approaches, both modeling and ontology approaches. The resulting ontology is specified in OntoUML and extends the social concepts of UFO-C