Abstract
The paper presents results of analysing and evaluating the OPEN Modelling Language (OML) metamodel in terms of the Bunge-Wand-Weber (BWW) model of information systems and the Framework of Information Systems Concepts (FRISCO). The analysis and evaluation has suggested several ways to improve the modelling constructs supported by OML and to improve how OML is defined and organised. It has also made it clearer how and why ontological models like the BWW-model and FRISCO can and should be used to improve and define object-oriented (OO) modelling languages. In particular, it has led to a template for defining OO modelling constructs in terms of what they represent in the problem domain during IS development. Finally, the analysis and evaluation has suggested ways to improve FRISCO as an analysis and evaluation tool for OO modelling languages.
The original version of this chapter was revised: The copyright line was incorrect. This has been corrected. The Erratum to this chapter is available at DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-35500-9_30
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bunge, M. (1977). Treatise on Basic Philosophy: Vol. 3: Ontology I: The Furniture of the World. Reidel, Boston.
Bunge, M. (1979). Treatise on Basic Philosophy: Vol. 4: Ontology II: A World of Systems. Reidel, Boston.
Falkenberg, E. D., Hesse, W., Lindgreen, P., Nilsson, B. E., Oei, J. L. H., Rolland, C., Stamper, R. K., Van Assche, F. J. M., Verrijn-Stuart, A. A., and Voss, K. (1998). A Framework of Information System Concepts — The FRISCO Report (Web edition). IFIP.
Firesmith, D. and Henderson-Sellers, B. (1998). Upgrading OML to version 1.1: Part 1 — referential relationships. Journal of Object-Oriented Programming (ROAD), 11 (3): 48–57.
Firesmith, D., Henderson-Sellers, B., and Graham, I. (1998). OPEN Modelling Language — OML Reference Manual. SIGS Reference Library. Cambridge University Press.
Graham, I. (1998). Requirements Engineering and Rapid Development — An Object-Orientes Approach. Addison-Wesley.
Graham, I., Henderson-Sellers, B., and Younessi, H. (1997). The OPEN Process Specification. Addison-Wesley, U.K. 314 pp.
Green, P. and Rosemann, M. (1999). An ontological evaluation of integrated process modelling. Proceedings of CAiSE*99, The 11th Conference on Advanced information Systems Engineering, Heidelberg/Germany, 14–18 June 1999.
Green, P. F. (1996). An Ontological Analysis of Information Systems Analysis and Design (ISAD) Grammars in Upper CASE Tools. PhD thesis, Department of Commerce, University of Queensland.
Henderson-Sellers, B., Atkinson, C., and Firesmith, D. G. (1999). Viewing the OML as a variant of the UML. To be presented at «UML’99», Fort Collins/CO.
Henderson-Sellers, B. and Barbier, F. (1999). What is this thing called aggregation? In Mitchell, R., Wills, A. C., Bosch, J., and Meyer, B., editors, TOOLS29,pages 216–230. IEEE Computer Society Press.
Henderson-Sellers, B. and Firesmith, D. (1998). Upgrading OML to version 1.1: Part 2 — additional concepts and notation. Journal of Object-Oriented Programming (ROAD), 11 (5): 61–67.
Henderson-Sellers, B., Simons, A. J. H., and Younessi, H. (1998). The OPEN Toolbox of Techniques. Addison-Wesley, U.K. 426 pp. + CD.
Jackson, M. (1995). Software Requirements and Specifications — A lexicon of practice, principles and prejudices. ACM Press/Addison-Wesley, Wokingham/England.
OMG (1999). OMG Unified Modeling Language Specification.
Opdahl, A. L. and Sindre, G. (1997). Facet modelling: An approach to flexible and integrated conceptual modelling. Information Systems, 22 (5): 291–323.
Parsons, J. and Wand, Y. (1997a). Choosing classes in conceptual modeling. CACM, 40 (6): 63–69.
Parsons, J. and Wand, Y. (1997b). Using objects for systems analysis. CACM,40(12):104110.
Sommerville, I. and Sawyer, P. (1997). Requirements Engineering — A good practice guide. Wiley, Chichester/England.
Takagaki, K. and Wand, Y. (1991). An object-oriented information systems model based on ontology. In Van Assche, F., Moulin, B., and Rolland, C., editors, Object Oriented Approach in Information Systems, pages 275–296, Amsterdam. Elsevier (North-Holland).
Wand, Y. (1989). A proposal for a formal model of objects. In Kim, W. and Lochovsky, F. H., editors, Object-Oriented Concepts, Databases, and Applications, chapter 21, pages 537–559. ACM Press/Addison-Wesley, New York/NY.
Wand, Y. and Weber, R. (1989). An ontological evaluation of systems analysis and design methods. In Falkenberg, E. and Lindgreen, P., editors, Proceedings of the IFIP WG8.1 Working Conference on Information Systems Concepts: An In-Depth Analysis, Namur/Belgium, pages 79–107, Amsterdam/The Netherlands. North-Holland.
Wand, Y. and Weber, R. (1993). On the ontological expressiveness of information systems analysis and design grammars. Journal of Information Systems, 3: 217–237.
Wand, Y. and Weber, R. (1995). On the deep structure of information systems. Information Systems Journal, 5: 203–223.
Weber, R. (1997). Ontological Foundations of Information Systems. Number 4 in Accounting Research Methodology Monograph series. Coopers and Lybrand, 333 Collins Street, Melbourne Vic 3000, Australia.
Weber, R. and Zhang, Y. (1996). An analytical evaluation of NIAM’s grammar for conceptual schema diagrams. Information Systems Journal, 6: 147–170.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2000 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Opdahl, A.L., Henderson-Sellers, B., Barbier, F. (2000). An Ontological Evaluation of the OML Metamodel. In: Falkenberg, E.D., Lyytinen, K., Verrijn-Stuart, A.A. (eds) Information System Concepts: An Integrated Discipline Emerging. IFIP — The International Federation for Information Processing, vol 36. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35500-9_18
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35500-9_18
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-5485-8
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-35500-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive