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Towards Ontologically Based Semantics for UML Constructs

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Conceptual Modeling — ER 2001 (ER 2001)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2224))

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Abstract

Conceptual models are formal descriptions of application domains that are used in early stages of system development to support requirements analysis.

The Unified Modeling Language was formed by integrating several diagramming techniques for the purpose of software specification, design, construction and maintenance. It would be advantageous to use the same modeling method throughout the development process of an information system, namely, to extend the use of UML to conceptual modeling. This would require assigning well-defined, real-world meaning to UML constructs.

In order to model the real-world, we need to specify what might exist in the world, namely, an ontology. We suggest that by mapping UML constructs to well-defined ontological concepts, we can form clear semantics for UML diagrams. Furthermore, based on the mapping we can suggest ontologically-based intra- and inter-diagram integrity rules to guide the construction of conceptual models.

In this paper we describe the results we obtained by mapping UML constructs to a specific well-formalized ontological model. In particular, we discuss the ontological meaning of objects, classes, and of interactions.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration, The University of British Columbia, Columbia

    Joerg Evermann & Yair Wand

Authors
  1. Joerg Evermann
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  2. Yair Wand
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ricoh Company, Ltd., Software Research Center, 1-1-17 Koishikawa, Bunkyo-ku, 112-0002, Tokyo, Japan

    Hideko S.Kunii

  2. George Mason University, Center for Secure Information Systems, Mail Stop 4A4, Fairfax, 22030-4444, VA, USA

    Sushil Jajodia

  3. Department of Computer and Information Science, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491, Trondheim, Norway

    Arne Sølvberg

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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Evermann, J., Wand, Y. (2001). Towards Ontologically Based Semantics for UML Constructs. In: S.Kunii, H., Jajodia, S., Sølvberg, A. (eds) Conceptual Modeling — ER 2001. ER 2001. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2224. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45581-7_27

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45581-7_27

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-42866-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45581-3

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