Object-role Modeling as a Domain Modeling Approach

Institute for Computing …, 2006

Computing Letters, 2005

Abstract: This position paper focuses on business domain modeling as part of requirements engineering in software development projects. Domain modeling concerns obtaining and modeling the language (concepts, terminologies; ontologies) used by stakeholders to talk about a domain. Achieving conceptual clarity and consensus among stakeholders is an important yet often neglected part of requirements engineering. Domain modeling can play a key role in supporting it. This does, however, require a nuanced approach aspects of ...

… Engineering, IEEE Transactions on, 1998

Retrieval, validation, and explanation tools are described for cooperative assistance during requirements engineering and are illustrated by a library system case study. Generic models of applications are reused as templates for modeling and critiquing requirements for new applications. The validation tools depend on a matching process which takes facts describing a new application and retrieves the appropriate generic model from the system library. The algorithms of the matcher, which implement a computational theory of analogical structure matching, are described. A theory of domain knowledge is proposed to define the semantics and composition of generic domain models in the context of requirements engineering. A modeling language and a library of models arranged in families of classes are described. The models represent the basic transaction processing or 'use case' for a class of applications. Critical difference rules are given to distinguish between families and hierarchical levels. Related work and future directions of the domain theory are discussed.

1999

In many organizations, there has been a move toward the use of object-oriented methods for the development of information systems. Little is understood, or reported on the basis of research, of the use of object-oriented methods by practicing professionals in the production of requirements specifications for commercial or industrial sized projects. In this paper, we outline a conceptual framework of "what might be happening" in professional object-oriented requirements engineering based on the common characteristics of published, well known object-oriented methods. We then describe a research project and the findings from a set of six case studies that have been undertaken that examine professional practice from the standpoint of the epistemology contained in the conceptual model. In these studies, it was found that the more formal models of objectorientation were rarely used to validate, or even clarify, the specification with clients or users. Rather, analysts tended to use informal models, such as use cases or ad hoc diagrams, to communicate the specification to users. Formal models are more often used internally within the analysis team and for communicating the specification to the design team.

Conceptual modelling methods such as Object-Role Modelling (ORM) have traditionally been developed with the aim of providing conceptual models of database structures. More recently, however, such modelling languages have shown their use for modelling (the ontology) of domains in general. In these latter cases, the modelling effort results in a (formally based) conceptual reasoning systems using a domain calculus on top of a domain grammar. As the title suggests, this paper is primarily concerned with the application of ORM 'rigour' to the modelling of active domains. In doing so, we will position the logbook paradigm as a history-oriented extension of the traditional natural language approach of ORM, and define an accompanying domain calculus (the Object-Role Calculus) which is suitable to deal with active domains. Finally, we will show how specific views (with dedicated notations), which zoom in on different aspects (such as flow of activities and actor involvement) of active domains, can easily be derived. Person working for Department 'I&KS' People working for department 'I&KS' Person (working for Department 'I&KS' AND ALSO owning Car of Brand 'Seat') People working for department 'I&KS' who also own a car of brand Seat Note that the natural language likeness of the ORC expressions used in this paper can be improved considerably.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2008

This paper contains a brief description of the R 2 M (Role and Request Modeling) method and its supporting visual modeling CASE (Computer Assisted Software Engineering) tool. R 2 M is a modeling method for creating Conceptual Models of work systems using a combination of ontological and object-oriented concepts. Ontological principles serve to define the meaning of modeling constructs in terms of domain semantics, and to derive rules guiding the modeling process. The CASE tool is a graphical software tool that supports the creation of models according to the R 2 M method. Guided by the principles of R 2 M, the tool helps assure the semantic integrity of models, and enables management of complex models via decomposition (i.e. more details at decreasing abstraction levels). The tool can help ensure consistency between different modelers and completeness of models.

2013

These lecture notes are primarily about domain modelling and only secondarily how to transform domain models into domain and interface requirements. The following facets of domain modelling will be covered: business processes, intrinsics, support technologies, management and organisation, rules and regulations, scripts, and human behaviour. The lectures will exemplify excerpts of models of container shipping, financial services, etcetera. We shall relate two (of three) parts of requirements models to domain models: the domain requirements-which are the requirements that can be expressed solely in terms of the terms of the domain models, and the interface requirements-which are those requirements that can only be expressed using terms both of the domain and the machine: the hardware and software being required. For domain requirements we briefly sketch the domain-to-requirements "algebra" of projection, instantiation, determination, extension and fitting. For interface requirements we briefly sketch the domain & machine issues of shared entities (bulk data input and refreshments), shared functions, shared events, and shared behaviours.

International Journal of Information System Modeling and Design, 2010

Object-Role Modeling (ORM) is an approach for modeling and querying information at the conceptual level, and for transforming ORM models and queries to or from other representations. Unlike attribute-based approaches such as Entity-Relationship (ER) modeling and class modeling within the Unified Modeling Language (UML), ORM is fact-oriented, where all facts and rules are modeled in terms of natural sentences easily understood and validated by nontechnical business users. ORM’s modeling procedure facilitates validation by verbalization and population with concrete examples. ORM’s graphical notation is far more expressive than that of ER diagrams or UML class diagrams, and its attribute-free nature makes it more stable and adaptable to changing business requirements. This article explains the fundamentals of ORM, illustrates some of its advantages as a data modeling approach, and outlines some recent research to extend ORM, with special attention to mappings to deductive databases.

2008

Using multiple contexts improves model understandability and contributes to solving a scalability problem. In our work, we introduce a modeling method called Systemic Enterprise Architecture Methodology (SEAM) that considers systems to be designed in different contexts. For each context a designer specifies base roles and then composes them into the whole model of the system. The analysis of models that integrate multiple roles, however, is difficult. In many cases models can be evaluated only after their implementation. Building a rapid prototype for the system, composed of multiple roles, can be helpful for evaluating its key features before its implementation. We understand rapid prototyping to be an early development phase for building small-scale implementations (prototypes). In this work, we present a tool that supports role composition. It is based on two programming techniques: Subject Oriented Programming (SOP) and Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP).

Foundations of Computing and Decision Sciences, 2015

The domain knowledge represented by ontology should be widely used in the design process of information system. The aim of the paper is to outline a systematic approach of developing a CIM model (domain model, precisely) on the basis of a selected domain ontology. There are presented some hints how ontology concepts can be expressed in domain model. Elaborated example realizes some difficulties in proposed approach, e.g. the domain knowledge is spread over many ontologies, some facts are defined at very general level (their interpretation is more difficult), ontology may contain many irrelevant elements. Nevertheless, we are believed that applying ontology in conscious way can help to achieve higher compliance of the domain model with the application domain.