OntoUML

  • Notation for conceptual modeling, a UML profile for modeling well-founded ontological models
  • Based on the Cognitive Science (knowledge about speci fics of our perception) and on the modal logic and the mathematical foundations of logic, sets and relations. Build on UFO (Universal Foundational Ontology).
  • Unlike other extensions of UML, OntoUML is created from the very foundations and constitute a complete system independent of the original UML elements. It uses some aspects (like classes), however, it omits a set of other problematic concepts (for instance aggregation and composition) and replaces them with own ontologically correct concepts.

Strengths

  • ability to distinguish various types of object types
  • ability to distinguish rigid and non-rigid object types
  • ability to distinguish dependent and independent object types
  • ability to distinguish various types of the whole-part relationship
  • ability to distinguish attributes of a generalization and specialization hierarchy
  • based on strictly defined mathematical logic and cognitive science knowledge
  • much more readable than plain UML
  • proved in conceptual modeling of business domains

Weaknesses

  • not well documented yet
  • not many practicioners
  • lack of OntoUML tools
  • not proved in a real software development process

Our publications

Rybola, Z., & Pergl, R. (2016). Towards OntoUML for Software Engineering: Transformation of Rigid Sortal Types into Relational Databases. Proceedings of {FedCSIS} 2016, 8, 1581–1591. https://doi.org/10.15439/2016F250
Rybola, Z., & Pergl, R. (2016). Towards OntoUML for Software Engineering: Transformation of Anti-Rigid Sortal Types into Relational Databases. Model and Data Engineering, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45547-1_1
Pergl, R., Sales, T. P., & Rybola, Z. (2013). Towards OntoUML for Software Engineering: From Domain Ontology to Implementation Model. Proceedings of MEDI 2013, 3rd, 249–263. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41366-7
Rybola, Z., & Pergl, R. (2016, June 13). Towards OntoUML for Software Engineering: Introduction to the Transformation of OntoUML into Relational Databases. Enterprise and Organizational Modeling and Simulation. 12th International Workshop on Enterprise & Organizational Modeling and Simulation, Ljubljana, Slovenia. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49454-8_5
Pergl, R., Sales, T. P., & Rybola, Z. (2013). Instance-Level Modelling and Simulation Revisited. Enterprise and Organizational Modeling and Simulation, 85–100. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41638-5_6
Verdonck, M., Gailly, F., Pergl, R., Guizzardi, G., Martins, B., & Pastor, O. (2018). Comparing traditional conceptual modeling with ontology-driven conceptual modeling: An empirical study. Information Systems, 81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.is.2018.11.009