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Software and Systems Modeling
Published in: Software and Systems Modeling 4/2022

15-09-2021 | Special Section Paper

Automated conceptual model clustering: a relator-centric approach

Authors: Giancarlo Guizzardi, Tiago Prince Sales, João Paulo A. Almeida, Geert Poels

Published in: Software and Systems Modeling | Issue 4/2022

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Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the use of reference conceptual models to capture information about complex and sensitive business domains (e.g., finance, healthcare, space). These models play a fundamental role in different types of critical semantic interoperability tasks. Therefore, domain experts must be able to understand and reason with their content. In other words, these models need to be cognitively tractable. This paper contributes to this goal by proposing a model clustering technique that leverages on the rich semantics of ontology-driven conceptual models (ODCM). In particular, we propose a formal notion of Relational Context to guide the automated clusterization (or modular breakdown) of conceptual models. Such Relational Contexts capture all the information needed for understanding entities “qua players of roles” in the scope of an objectified (reified) relationship (relator). The paper also presents computational support for automating the identification of Relational Contexts and this modular breakdown procedure. Finally, we report the results of an empirical study assessing the cognitive effectiveness of this approach.
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Footnotes
1
There is a long debate in philosophy regarding the ontological neutrality (or lack thereof) of formal languages. We simply mean here that they commit to a simple ontology of formal structures (e.g., that of set theory) in which sorts of types and relations are undifferentiated.
 
2
We will refer to this model (henceforth termed the MGIC model [44]) in a few passages of this article. The MGIC model was developed by practitioners in the context of a Brazilian governmental project and for the domain of Ground Transportation Regulation. The model consists of 3,800 classes, 61 datatypes, 1,918 associations, 3,616 subtyping relations, 698 generalization sets, 865 attributes, i.e., navigable association ends.
 
5
In the model of Fig. 1, we use a color scheme in which object kinds are represented in red; other object types classifying instances of those kinds are represented in a lighter tone of that red; relators are represented in green.
 
6
The model in Fig. 1 is a simplified model for this domain. A more detailed model could include cases of “relators mediating relators” (e.g., a car rental mediating a car ownership and an employment). The example avoids these to avoid deviating from the main focus of the discussion. Our formal definition of RCC (see Sect. 4.7), however, has no such a limitation, thus, addressing these cases that result in nested contexts (i.e., contexts including other contexts).
 
7
ontouml-js is distributed via NPM (https://​www.​npmjs.​com/​package/​ontouml-js) and its source code is available at https://​purl.​org/​krdb-core/​ontouml-js.
 
10
Visual Paradigm is a multi-platform desktop CASE tool that supports, among others, UML modeling, and whose functionalities can be extended via plugins written in Java. For more information, please refer to https://​www.​visual-paradigm.​com/​.
 
12
See https://​purl.​org/​krdb-core/​ontouml-schema, an application-neutral reference format for serializing and exchanging OntoUML models and diagrams.
 
13
The ontological rules behind OntoUML yields models in which all domain relations are reified as relators [22].
 
14
As discussed in [23, 29], relators and events form a duality that is often manifest in terms of systematic polysemy in language (e.g., “marriage as a relator bundling mutual rights and obligations of the spouses” versus “marriage as a process aggregating the actions of the spouses qua players of these roles”; “service as a contractual agreement” versus “service as a service delivery event”).
 
15
Association classes were introduced in UML to address one of the functions of relators (namely, association reification) but with a poorer semantics [31]. It is natural that UML users interpret relators as association classes and, in doing so, resist to what they interpret as “change in notation”.
 
16
For example, in the large MGIC model previously mentioned, the class stereotypes considered in Sect. 4.1 account for circa 90% of the cases, and the meta-relations of subtyping and mediation account for more than 85% of the represented relations.
 
17
This follows not only from the patterns that can be used to build a Relational Context but also, and more directly, from its very formal definition in Sect. 4.
 
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Metadata
Title
Automated conceptual model clustering: a relator-centric approach
Authors
Giancarlo Guizzardi
Tiago Prince Sales
João Paulo A. Almeida
Geert Poels
Publication date
15-09-2021
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in
Software and Systems Modeling / Issue 4/2022
Print ISSN: 1619-1366
Electronic ISSN: 1619-1374
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10270-021-00919-5

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