Uma Abordagem Orientada a Objetivos para Desenvolvimento de Ontologias baseado em Integração

Reúso tem sido apontado como uma abordagem promissora para a Engenharia de Ontologias. Reutilização permite acelerar o processo de desenvolvimento, além de melhorar a qualidade das ontologias resultantes, uma vez que promove a aplicação de boas práticas. No âmbito da Engenharia de Ontologias, uma das formas de reúso envolve a integração de ontologias existentes. Integração de ontologias pode ser definida como a junção (integração) de ontologias fonte em uma ontologia integrada, na qual ainda podem ser acrescidos conceitos e relações além dos encontrados nas ontologias fontes. A integração depende de encontrar ontologias que satisfaçam os requisitos da ontologia a ser desenvolvida. Porém, muitas vezes, as ontologias disponíveis não têm seu design rationale explícito, o que dificulta o entendimento das ontologias fonte e, consequentemente, a integração entre elas. Explicitar o design rationale da ontologia a ser desenvolvida a partir da integração também é importante para auxiliar na busca por ontologias fonte que atendam os requisitos da ontologia integrada. Embora haja abordagens de desenvolvimento de ontologias que reconheçam a importância da integração nesse contexto e também haja abordagens que tratem especificamente do processo de integração, há carência de abordagens que guiem o engenheiro de ontologias em um processo de desenvolvimento de ontologias baseado em integração e que se preocupem em tornar explícito o design rationale da ontologia sendo construída. Modelagem de objetivos tem sido apontada como uma forma de apoiar o levantamento de requisitos de ontologias. Nesse sentido, a capacidade de os modelos de objetivos representarem aspectos motivacionais do desenvolvimento de ontologias pode ser explorada para explicitar o design rationale por trás de uma ontologia. Assim, neste trabalho é proposta Integra, uma abordagem orientada a objetivos para desenvolvimento de ontologias baseado em integração. Para avaliar Integra, ela foi utilizada em uma prova de conceito e em um estudo de caso

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

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

An ontology-based system to generate epidemiologic profiles

Epidemiology is a field of study in Medicine which seeks to understand the factors that determine the frequency and distribution of diseases in humans. This field allows one to understand the phenomena of health and disease of a particular population by generating this populations epidemiological profile. The knowledge provided in this profile allows a shift in the focus from treating to preventing diseases, which is an important aim of the current Brazilian health care program. This dissertation proposes a system to study the epidemiological profile in a basic health care unit. This system applies an ontology as basis for modeling and querying the epidemiological information. An ontology is a conceptual model which captures an specific view of a domain of discourse. This model may be used to structure the systems information, which later can be queried also with basis on this same ontology. A preliminary validation of this systems prototype has shown that it is able to successfully generate the health care units epidemiological profile, providing new knowledge about the patients and treatments involved in this unit. Such prototype may now be applied in this real setting to guide the actions of health care professionals in dealing with hypertension and other health conditions. In order to develop the system, a goal-oriented methodology based on Tropos is applied. This methodology guides software development since an early stage of organizational modeling until the systems implementation by using current standards for ontology implementation. Many of the available ontology engineering methodologies presuppose the existence of a set of questions which provide the objective and scope of the ontology under development. However, these so-called competency questions are not always clear from start. The highlight of the proposed methodology is applying goal analysis to assist the ontology engineer to reason about and model competency questions. Following this view, such competency questions are comparable to system requirements, elicited and modeled during the requirements engineering stage of a software development process. Both the developed system and the proposed methodology are contributions of this work. However, while the former has proven to be useful in practice, further steps must be carried out in order to properly validate the latter, by applying it to other cases

Uma linguagem para formalização de discursos com base em ontologias

Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Ciência da Informação, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência da Informação, 2015.Esta pesquisa propõe a arquitetura da informação de uma linguagem formal textual para representar discursos sobre entidades ontológicas e obter deduções a respeito de ontologias de domínio. Por meio do paradigma de metamodelagem, a linguagem permite tratamento de ontologias heterogêneas que podem ser descritas como instâncias de uma ou mais ontologias de fundamentação. A linguagem suporta comportamentos clássicos e modais sustentados por noções de prova baseadas no paradigma de Programação em Lógica (Modal). O arcabouço modal desenvolvido possibilita que diferentes interpretações modais sejam introduzidas às especificações das ontologias, e contempla especialmente sistemas baseados em lógicas de múltiplos agentes. Uma sistematização do fragmento endurante da Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO) é realizada com objetivo de compor parte do marco teórico que fundamenta a proposta e de servir de exemplo de instanciação do arcabouço desenvolvido. Como resultados complementares, destacam-se: uma sistematização de um conjunto ampliado de regras para produção de modelos conceituais e um glossário detalhado de termos e conceitos da UFO-A; protótipos funcionais que implementam os sistemas elaborados; traduções das teorias descritas no arcabouço proposto para linguagens visuais, como extensões da representação gráfica da OntoUML; e discussões a respeito da integração de Arquitetura da Informação, Modelagem Conceitual e Programação em Lógica (Modal) no contexto social aplicado.This research proposes the information architecture of a textual formal language to represent and reason about ontological entities based on foundational ontologies. Through metamodeling, the language is able to deal with heterogeneous ontologies that can be described as instances of one or more foundational ontology. The language provides classic and modal inference mechanisms supported by proof notions based on the (Modal) Logic Programming paradigm. The modalities introduced by the modal framework allow a wide range of interpretations, including multi-agent systems. A systematization of the endurant fragment of the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO) is produced in order to compose part of the theoretical framework underlying the proposal, and to serve as an example instantiating the developed framework. As complementary results we highlight: a systematization of an extended set of rules for conceptual modeling and a detailed glossary of terms and concepts of UFO-A; functional prototypes implementing the developed systems; translations of the theories described as instances of the framework to diagramatic representations, as extensions of the OntoUML visual language; and discussions regarding the integration of Information Architecture, Conceptual Modeling and Logic Programming within Applied Social Science

On the symbiosis between conceptual modeling and ontology engineering : recommendation-based conceptual modeling

Within an enterprise, different conceptual models, such as process, data, and goal models, are created by various stakeholders. These models are fundamentally based on similar underlying enterprise (domain) concepts, but they have a different focus, are represented using different modeling languages, take different viewpoints, utilize different terminology, and are used to develop different enterprise artefacts (such as documents, software, databases, etc.); therefore, they typically lack consistency and alignment. Another issue is that modelers have different vocabulary selections and different modeling styles. As a result, the enterprise can find itself accumulating a pile of models which cover similar aspects in different manners. Those models are not machine-readable and cannot be processed automatically. Enterprise-Specific Ontologies (ESOs) aim to solve this problem by serving as a reference during the conceptual model creation. Using such a shared semantic repository makes conceptual models semantically aligned and facilitates model integration. However, managing those ontologies is complicated; an enterprise is an evolving entity, and as it changes, the ESO might become outdated. During the years of research dedicated to this dissertation, the Recommendation-Based Conceptual Modeling and Ontology Evolution (CMOE+) framework was developed. This framework establishes a symbiotic relationship between the Ontology engineering and the Conceptual modeling fields. CMOE+ consists of two cycles: the Ontology Evolution cycle and the Conceptual Modeling cycle. The Ontology Evolution cycle is responsible for setting up the initial version of the ESO and updating it as the knowledge within the enterprise evolves. Additionally, this cycle encapsulates recommendation services to perform ontology look-up and to present the most relevant ESO concepts in support of the modeler. The Conceptual Modeling cycle is responsible for the creation of conceptual models in different modeling languages based on the ESO. This cycle is also concerned with the quality evaluation of the created models. CMOE+ was developed based on requirements identified as a result of a literature review and a case study. The development process follows the Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM). After the initial version of CMOE+ was put forward, our focus was narrowed towards the recommendation-based conceptual modeling part of CMOE+, and we continued to gradually improve the framework in iterations until it reached its current state. The Ontology Evolution Cycle is not fully addressed within the scope of this dissertation. In order to demonstrate the performance and usability of CMOE+, it was exemplified for process modeling using BPMN and goal modeling using i*. This thesis presents a detailed instantiation, and explains steps to be performed in order to instantiate CMOE+ for other modeling languages. In order to evaluate the process modeling instance of CMOE+, a CMOE+BPMN tool was implemented. This tool incorporates a BPMN modeler, facilitates storage and access of the ESO, and includes all algorithms functioning within CMOE+ for the BPMN modeling language (as some of the algorithms are language dependent). Next, CMOE+ was exemplified using the i* goal modeling language. Finally, we demonstrated the ability of CMOE+ to perform alignment between i* and BPMN models, in order to show that CMOE+ is indeed beneficial in achieving interoperability among models created in different modeling languages and covering distinct aspects of the enterprise

Ontology reuse and synthesis for modelling and simulation

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonThe proliferation and ubiquity of SemanticWeb technologies have transformed the way computer society reshapes its technology through knowledge integration, knowledge reuse and knowledge sharing. Ontology, one of the Semantic Web components, is a way to represent domain knowledge into a human-understandable and machine-readable format. Ontology in simulation has been seen as a conceptual model of a system in an explicit and unambiguous manner, where it can be applied to better capture the modeler’s perspective of the domain. Regarding an ontology for simulation modeling, by reusing ontologies, it helps to reduce time and effort in attaining the domain knowledge, and at the same time assist in domain understanding. For a semantically-richer simulation ontology, it is useful to engage with real data and existing ontologies. This research contributes a rigorous method that extracts domain knowledge, synthesizes processes performed within the domain, and builds a minimal and viable ontology for simulation modeling, knownas aMinimal Viable Simulation Ontology (MVSimO). The research method initially applies ontology selection techniques in Ontology Reuse Framework (ORF) to obtain suitable existing ontologies for reuse. ORF incorporates a module extraction technique during the domain conceptualization phase, where the modules will represent domain knowledge as sub-ontologies. Formal Concept Analysis is later applied to the real-world data to reveal the process details of the domain. Finally, the development of MVSimO is completed by the derivation of event semantic of the processes. The effectiveness of ontology selection and synthesizing methods, is reviewed by evaluating the selected ontology knowledge extracted, and the detailed ontological model of MVSimO. The evaluation of,MVSimO is performed to determine its agreement to the established simulation model of the domain. The evaluation results are encouraging, providing concrete outcomes of the new technique of ontology reuse and new development to the research area

Quality Evaluation of Requirements Models: The Case of Goal Models and Scenarios

Context: Requirements Engineering approaches provide expressive model techniques for requirements elicitation and analysis. Yet, these approaches struggle to manage the quality of their models, causing difficulties in understanding requirements, and increase development costs. The models’ quality should be a permanent concern. Objectives: We propose a mixed-method process for the quantitative evaluation of the quality of requirements models and their modelling activities. We applied the process to goal-oriented (i* 1.0 and iStar 2.0) and scenario-based (ARNE and ALCO use case templates) models, to evaluate their usability in terms of appropriateness recognisability and learnability. We defined (bio)metrics about the models and the way stakeholders interact with them, with the GQM approach. Methods: The (bio)metrics were evaluated through a family of 16 quasi-experiments with a total of 660 participants. They performed creation, modification, understanding, and review tasks on the models. We measured their accuracy, speed, and ease, using metrics of task success, time, and effort, collected with eye-tracking, electroencephalography and electro-dermal activity, and participants’ opinion, through NASA-TLX. We characterised the participants with GenderMag, a method for evaluating usability with a focus on gender-inclusiveness. Results: For i*, participants had better performance and lower effort when using iStar 2.0, and produced models with lower accidental complexity. For use cases, participants had better performance and lower effort when using ALCO. Participants using a textual representation of requirements had higher performance and lower effort. The results were better for ALCO, followed by ARNE, iStar 2.0, and i* 1.0. Participants with a comprehensive information processing and a conservative attitude towards risk (characteristics that are frequently seen in females) took longer to start the tasks but had a higher accuracy. The visual and mental effort was also higher for these participants. Conclusions: A mixed-method process, with (bio)metric measurements, can provide reliable quantitative information about the success and effort of a stakeholder while working on different requirements models’ tasks