Application examples of the object-oriented based translation approach to fragments of the UML, ER and relational metaschemas

Schema translation is an important problem in the fields of databases and information systems engineering. In current practice, schemas translation problems have been often tackled by means of ad-hoc solutions. However, ad-hoc solutions are very heavy and hard to maintain, and there is still a compelling need for a general solution able to cope, in a uniform way, the large diversity of the various formats and type of information available. The schema translation problem can be simply stated as follows: Given a (source) metaschema MS1, a (source) schema S1 (instance of MS1) and a (target) metaschema MS2, obtain a schema S2 instance of MS2 that suitably corresponds to S1. This report illustrates three examples of the application of the object-oriented based translation approach to fragments of different instances of MOF metaschemas.Postprint (published version

An object-oriented approach to the translation between MOF Metaschemas

Since the 1960s, many formal languages have been developed in order to allow software engineers to specify conceptual models and to design software artifacts. A few of these languages, such as the Unified Modeling Language (UML), have become widely used standards. They employ notations and concepts that are not readily understood by "domain experts," who understand the actual problem domain and are responsible for finding solutions to problems.The Object Management Group (OMG) developed the Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Rules (SBVR) specification as a first step towards providing a language to support the specification of "business vocabularies and rules." The function of SBVR is to capture business concepts and business rules in languages that are close enough to ordinary language, so that business experts can read and write them, and formal enough to capture the intended semantics and present them in a form that is suitable for engineering the automation of the rules.The ultimate goal of business rules approaches is to build software systems directly from vocabularies and rules. One way of reaching this goal, within the context of model-driven architecture (MDA), is to transform SBVR models into UML models. OMG also notes the need for a reverse engineering transformation between UML schemas and SBVR vocabularies and rules in order to validate UML schemas. This thesis proposes an automatic approach to translation between UML schemas and SBVR vocabularies and rules, and vice versa. It consists of the application of a new generic schema translation approach to the particular case of UML and SBVR.The main contribution of the generic approach is the extensive use of object-oriented concepts in the definition of translation mappings, particularly the use of operations (and their refinements) and invariants, both formalized in the Object Constraint Language (OCL). Translation mappings can be used to check that two schemas are translations of each other, and to translate one into the other, in either direction. Translation mappings are declaratively defined by means of preconditions, postconditions and invariants, and they can be implemented in any suitable language. The approach leverages the object-oriented constructs embedded in Meta Object Facility (MOF) metaschemas to achieve the goals of object-oriented software development in the schema translation problem.The generic schema translation approach and its application to UML schemas and SBVR vocabularies and rules is fully implemented in the UML-based Specification Environment (USE) tool and validated by a case study based on the conceptual schema of the Digital Bibliography & Library Project (DBLP) system

A conceptual schema for a conference management application

Conference management applications have been widely used as examples for the study of conceptual schemas because of their manageable size and diversity of cases. However, as far as we are concerned, the conceptual schemas available only refer to the structural or static part of these systems. Therefore we have considered useful and necessary for our work to develop a whole specification, including the behaviour of a conference management application. The conceptual schema proposed in this paper is based on the study of the code of a real existing product: MYREVIEW. Additionally, this paper has also permitted to test or consolidate the real application of some proposals. The first group consists on alternate mechanisms to define integrity constraints and derived elements proposed by Olivé. The root of these proposals is the definition of constraint and derived elements by means of operations. Secondly, it aims at exploiting the benefits of modelling events as entity types proposed by Olivé. Finally, it also includes the distinction between domain events, action request events and query events in which Olivé and Raventós are currently working.Postprint (published version

SBVR meanings and representations metaschemas

The Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR), v1.0 document (Object Management Group 2008) is an Available Specification, published by the Object Management Group (OMG), that defines the vocabulary and rules for documenting the semantics of business vocabulary, business facts and business rules. The specification is applicable to the domain of business vocabularies and business rules of all kinds of business activities of all kinds of organizations. It is conceptualized optimally for business people rather than automated rules processing, and is designed to be used for business purposes, independent of information system designs. This report describes two metamodels as instances of MOF: the first one is the subset of the SBVR metamodel necessary for describing conceptual schemas as a combination of concepts and facts as defined in SBVR. The second one describes the subset of the SBVR metamodel concerning representations of the meanings.Postprint (published version

Aprenentatge actiu dels sistemes d’informació

L’especialitat de Sistemes d’Informació del Grau en Enginyeria Informàtica ha de capacitar l’estudiant o estudianta per comprendre els processos operatius i la gestió que porten a terme les persones en les organitzacions i familiaritzar l’estudiant amb els diferents tipus d’eines tecnològiques existents actualment en un SI. En aquest projecte es persegueix impulsar un procés d’aprenentatge més efectiu de la realitat dels sistemes d’informació en les organitzacions a través de la visualització dels problemes del “món real”, de manera que es generi l’interès de l’estudiantat pels continguts, se’ls faci entendre la rellevància dels problemes plantejats i se’ls doni eines per buscar més informació sobre nous problemes que no s’havien plantejat inicialment.Peer Reviewe

DSS from an RE perspective: A systematic mapping

Decision support systems (DSS) provide a unified analytical view of business data to better support decision-making processes. Such systems have shown a high level of user satisfaction and return on investment. However, several surveys stress the high failure rate of DSS projects. This problem results from setting the wrong requirements by approaching DSS in the same way as operational systems, whereas a specific approach is needed. Although this is well-known, there is still a surprising gap on how to address requirements engineering (RE) for DSS.; To overcome this problem, we conducted a systematic mapping study to identify and classify the literature on DSS from an RE perspective. Twenty-seven primary studies that addressed the main stages of RE were selected, mapped, and classified into 39 models, 27 techniques, and 54 items of guidance. We have also identified a gap in the literature on how to design the DSS main constructs (typically, the data warehouse and data flows) in a methodological manner from the business needs. We believe this study will help practitioners better address the RE stages of DSS projects.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Facilitating the definition of general constraints in UML (extended version)

One important aspect in the specification of conceptual schemas is the definition of general constraints that cannot be expressed by the predefined constructs provided by conceptual modeling languages. In general this is done by means of general-purpose languages, like OCL. In this paper we propose a new approach to facilitate the definition of such general constraints in UML. More precisely, we define a profile that extends the set of UML predefined constraints with some types of constraints that are used very frequently in conceptual schemas. We also study the application of our ideas to the specification of two real-life applications and we show how results in constraint-related problems may be easily incorporated to our proposal.Postprint (published version

Elaboració d’un pla de tutories per a la FIB

La majoria d'estudiants que accedeixen a la universitat, i en concret a la FIB, no són conscients del que comporta cursar una carrera universitària. Els estudis universitaris requereixen molta dedicació. Sovint els estudiants tenen mancances de coneixements, però també hàbits i actituds no adequats. En aquest sentit és interessant la figura del tutor, especialment en l’inici dels estudis, per tal de guiar i orientar els estudiants i estudiantes amb l’objectiu principal de facilitar la seva adaptació al mon universitari i millorar el seu rendiment acadèmic. Actualment les tutories són voluntàries a la FIB i hi ha pocs estudiants que demanin un tutor i pocs professors que s'impliquin en aquesta tasca. Per una banda, molts estudiants no veuen la necessitat de tenir un tutor. Per altra banda, hi ha professors que no disposen ni del material ni de la formació que seria desitjable per a fer aquesta tasca i d’altres que no creuen en la seva utilitat. L’objectiu d’aquest projecte és l’elaboració d’un Pla de Tutories per a la FIB amb les directrius i material necessari per a desenvolupar aquesta tasca. D’aquesta manera esperem captar més tutors i tutores i incidir en una millora del rendiment acadèmic.Peer Reviewe

SBVR meanings and representations metaschemas

The Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR), v1.0 document (Object Management Group 2008) is an Available Specification, published by the Object Management Group (OMG), that defines the vocabulary and rules for documenting the semantics of business vocabulary, business facts and business rules. The specification is applicable to the domain of business vocabularies and business rules of all kinds of business activities of all kinds of organizations. It is conceptualized optimally for business people rather than automated rules processing, and is designed to be used for business purposes, independent of information system designs. This report describes two metamodels as instances of MOF: the first one is the subset of the SBVR metamodel necessary for describing conceptual schemas as a combination of concepts and facts as defined in SBVR. The second one describes the subset of the SBVR metamodel concerning representations of the meanings

Application examples of the object-oriented based translation approach to fragments of the UML, ER and relational metaschemas

Schema translation is an important problem in the fields of databases and information systems engineering. In current practice, schemas translation problems have been often tackled by means of ad-hoc solutions. However, ad-hoc solutions are very heavy and hard to maintain, and there is still a compelling need for a general solution able to cope, in a uniform way, the large diversity of the various formats and type of information available. The schema translation problem can be simply stated as follows: Given a (source) metaschema MS1, a (source) schema S1 (instance of MS1) and a (target) metaschema MS2, obtain a schema S2 instance of MS2 that suitably corresponds to S1. This report illustrates three examples of the application of the object-oriented based translation approach to fragments of different instances of MOF metaschemas