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International Conference on Conceptual Modeling

ER 2017: Conceptual Modeling pp 437–450Cite as

Determining the Preferred Representation of Temporal Constraints in Conceptual Models

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 10650))

Abstract

The need for expressing temporal constraints in conceptual models is well-known, but it is unclear which representation is preferred and what would be easier to understand by modellers. We assessed five different modes of representing temporal constraints, being the formal semantics, Description logics notation, a coding-style notation, temporal EER diagrams, and (pseudo-)natural language sentences. The same information was presented to 15 participants in an experimental evaluation. Principally, it showed that (1) there was a clear preference for diagrams and natural language versus a dislike for other representations; (2) diagrams were preferred for simple constraints, but the natural language rendering was preferred for more complex temporal constraints; and (3) a multi-modal modelling tool will be needed for the data analysis stage to be effective.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    “C must evolve into a B some time in the future” and “C evolved into a B in the past”, with both ceasing to be a C, respectively.

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Acknowledgments

We thank all those who participated in the experiment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    C. Maria Keet & Sonia Berman

Authors
  1. C. Maria Keet
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  2. Sonia Berman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to C. Maria Keet .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt, Austria

    Heinrich C. Mayr

  2. Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bozen-Bolzano, Italy

    Giancarlo Guizzardi

  3. Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

    Hui Ma

  4. Valencia University of Technology, Valencia, Spain

    Oscar Pastor

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Keet, C.M., Berman, S. (2017). Determining the Preferred Representation of Temporal Constraints in Conceptual Models. In: Mayr, H., Guizzardi, G., Ma, H., Pastor, O. (eds) Conceptual Modeling. ER 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10650. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69904-2_33

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69904-2_33

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-69903-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-69904-2

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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