Authors: Jeffrey Parsons, Shan Lu
Tags: 2005, conceptual modeling
UML is used for at least two purposes: OO software design, and conceptual modeling. However, UML’s origins in software engineering may limit its appropriateness for conceptual modeling. Evermann and Wand [5,6,7] have developed a set of formal ontological rules that constrain the construction of UML diagrams to reflect underlying ontological assumptions about the real world. This paper examines issues in implementing that functionality in a UML CASE tool. The main contribution of our research is to distinguish four categories of rules for implementation purposes, reflecting the relative importance of different rules and the degree of flexibility available in enforcing them. We further propose four implementation strategies that correspond to these rule categories, and identify some rules that cannot be implemented without changing the UML specification. We have implemented the rules in an open-source UML CASE tool, providing a proof-of-concept demonstration of the feasibility and usefulness of the approach.Read the full paper here: https://www.emmsad.org/archive/2005
