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Intentional Perspectives on Information Systems Engineering pp 277–288Cite as

Testing Conceptual Schema Satisfiability

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Abstract

Satisfiability is one of the properties that all conceptual schemas must have. Satisfiability applies to both the structural and the behavioral parts of a conceptual schema. Structurally, a conceptual schema is satisfiable if each base or derived entity and relationship type of the schema may have a non-empty population at certain time. Behaviorally, a conceptual schema is satisfiable if for each event type there is at least one consistent state of the information base and one event of that type with a set of characteristics such that the event constraints are satisfied, and the effects of the event leave the information base in a state that is consistent and satisfies the event postconditions. There has been a lot of work on automated reasoning procedures for checking satisfiability but it is well known that the problem of reasoning with integrity constraints and derivation rules in its full generality is undecidable. In this chapter, we explore an alternative approach to satisfiability checking, which can be used when conceptual schemas are developed in the context of an environment that allows their testing. The main contribution of this chapter is to show that when conceptual schemas can be tested then their satisfiability can be proved by testing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department Enginyeria de Serveis i Sistemes d’Informació, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Jordi Girona 1-3, 08034, Barcelona, Spain

    Antoni Olivé & Albert Tort

Authors
  1. Antoni Olivé
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  2. Albert Tort
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Correspondence to Antoni Olivé .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , IAE de Paris, Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, rue Broca 21, Paris, 75005, France

    Selmin Nurcan

  2. Centre de Recherche en Informatique, Université Paris 1, Paris, 75013, France

    Camille Salinesi

  3. , Centre PMF, Université Paris 1, Panthéon Sorbonne, rue de Tolbiac 90, Paris, 75013, France

    Carine Souveyet

  4. , Department of Information Systems, University of Geneva, route de Drize 7, Carouge, 1227, Switzerland

    Jolita Ralyté

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Olivé, A., Tort, A. (2010). Testing Conceptual Schema Satisfiability. In: Nurcan, S., Salinesi, C., Souveyet, C., Ralyté, J. (eds) Intentional Perspectives on Information Systems Engineering. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12544-7_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12544-7_15

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-12543-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-12544-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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