A Detailed Comparison of UML and OWL

As models and ontologies assume an increasingly central role in software and information systems engineering, the question of how exactly they compare and how they can sensibly be used together assumes growing importance. However, no study to date has systematically and comprehensively compared the two technology spaces, and a large variety of different bridging and integration ideas have been proposed in recent years without any detailed analysis of whether they are sound or useful. In this paper, we address this problem by providing a detailed and comprehensive comparison of the two technology spaces in terms of their flagship languages – UML and OWL – each a de facto and de jure standard in its respective space. To fully analyze the end user experience, we perform the comparison at two levels – one considering the underlying boundary assumptions and philosophy adopted by each language and the other considering their detailed features. We also consider all relevant auxiliary languages such as OCL. The resulting comparison clarifies the relationship between the two technologies and provides a solid foundation for deciding how to use them together or integrate them