Towards ontological foundations for conceptual modeling: The unified foundational ontology (UFO) story

Abstract

This paper describes a long-term research program on developing ontological foundations for conceptual modeling. This program, organized around the theoretical background of the foundational ontology UFO (Unified Foundational Ontology), aims at developing theories, methodologies and engineering tools with the goal of advancing conceptual modeling as a theoretically sound discipline but also one that has concrete and measurable practical implications. The paper describes the historical context in which UFO was conceived, briefly discusses its stratified organization, and reports on a number of applications of this foundational ontology over more than a decade. In particular, it discusses the most successful application of UFO, namely, the development of the conceptual modeling language OntoUML. The paper also discusses a number of methodological and computational tools, which have been developed over the years to support the OntoUML community. Examples of these methodological tools include ontological patterns and anti-patterns; examples of these computational tools include automated support for pattern-based model construction, formal model verification, formal model validation via visual simulation, model verbalization, code generation and anti-pattern detection and rectification. In addition, the paper reports on a variety of applications in which the language as well as its associated tools have been employed to engineer models in several institutional contexts and domains. Finally, it reflects on some of these lessons learned by observing how OntoUML has been actually used in practice by its community and on how these have influenced both the evolution of the language as well as the advancement of some of the core ontological notions in UFO.

Formal Definition of a General Ontology Pattern Language using a Graph Grammar

“…As discussed in [6], the observation of the application of OntoUML over the years conducted by a variety of groups in a variety of domains amounted to a fruitful empirical source of knowledge that triggered the evolution of both UFO and OntoUML. In this process, termed Systematic Subversions [6], users of the language systematically created models that were (purposefully) grammatically incorrect but which were needed to express the intended characterization of their underlying conceptualizations that could not be expressed otherwise.…”

“…In this process, termed Systematic Subversions [6], users of the language systematically created models that were (purposefully) grammatically incorrect but which were needed to express the intended characterization of their underlying conceptualizations that could not be expressed otherwise. These includes the representation of event-related phenomena in structural conceptual models [17], the representation of powertypes [18] (types whose instances are types, not individuals), as well as the representation of anti-rigid types (e.g., roles, phases) and non-sortal types (i.e., categories, mixins and role-mixins, whose instances are moments (relators, modes) [19].…”

“…In a recent paper [5], we have shown that OntoUML comprises a number of ontology patterns reflecting corresponding ontological micro-theories put forth by its underlying foundational ontology (UFO) [6]. As discussed in [5], UFO is a system of micro-theories addressing basically all the classic conceptual modeling concepts.…”

The OntoREA Accounting Model: Ontology-based Modeling of the Accounting Domain

“…To keep the REA accounting model close to its original version the reification is shown outside the model within a separate diagram. 24 For illustration purposes the duality relationship is demonstrated within a simple example in Figure 3. In the cash purchase transaction the enterprise buys from the supplier a commodity and pays for it in cash.…”

“…In conceptual modeling entity types and relationship types are the most fundamental constructs [24]. For the OntoREA accounting model to be developed the following entity types are of importance:…”