Skip to main content

Granularity in Conceptual Modelling: Application to Metamodels

  • Conference paper
Conceptual Modeling – ER 2010 (ER 2010)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 6412))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

The granularity of conceptual models depends at least in part on the granularity of their underpinning metamodel. Here we investigate the theory of granularity as it can be applied to conceptual modelling and, especially, metamodelling for information systems development methodologies. With a background context of situational method engineering, this paper applies some theoretical works on granularity to the study of current metamodelling approaches. It also establishes some granularity-related best practices to take into account when adopting a metamodel, especially for its future use in developing method fragments for situational method engineering. Using these best practices will result in components of better quality and, consequently, better conceptual models and methodologies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Welke, R., Kumar, K.: Method Engineering: A Proposal for Situation-Specific Methodology Construction. In: Cotterman, W.W., Senn, J.A. (eds.) Systems Analysis and Design: A Research Agenda. J. Wiley & Sons, Chichester (1991)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Brinkkemper, S.: Method Engineering: Engineering of Information Systems Development Methods and Tools. Inf. Software Technol. 38(4), 275–280 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Henderson-Sellers, B.: Method Engineering for OO System Development. ACM Comm. 46(10), 73–78 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Ghidini, C., Giunchiglia, F.: A Semantics for Abstraction. In: Procs. ECAI 2004 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Giunchiglia, F., Walsh, T.: A Theory of Abstraction. Artificial Intelligence 57(2-3), 323–390 (1992)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  6. Mani, I.: A Theory of Granularity and its Application to Problems of Polysemy and Underspecification of Meaning. In: Cohn, A.G., Schubert, L.K., Shapiro, S.C. (eds.) Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference (KR 1998), pp. 245–257. Morgan Kaufmann, San Mateo (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Unhelkar, B., Henderson-Sellers, B.: ODBMS Considerations in the Granularity of a Reusable OO Design. In: Mingins, C., Meyer, B. (eds.) TOOLS15, pp. 229–234. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Hobbs, J.: Granularity. In: Procs. Int. Joint Conf. on Artificial Intelligence, IJCAI 1985 (1985)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Lakoff, G.: Fire, Women, and Dangerous Things. What Categories Reveal About the Mind. University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1987)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  10. Winston, M., Chaffin, R., Herrmann, D.: A Taxonomy of Part-Whole Relations. Cognitive Science 11, 417–444 (1987)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Jørgensen, K.A.: Modelling on Multiple Abstraction Levels. In: Procs. 7th Workshop on Product Structuring – Product Platform Development, Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Henderson-Sellers, B., Unhelkar, B.: OPEN Modeling with UML. Addison-Wesley, Harlow (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Favre, J.-M.: Foundations of Model (Driven) (Reverse) Engineering: Models. Episode I: Stories of The Fidus Papyrus and of The Solarus. In: Bézivin, J., Hockel, R. (eds.) Procs. Dagstuhl Seminar 04101 Language Engineering for Model-Driven Software Development (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  14. OMG: UML superstructure, v2.2. OMG documentsmsc/09-02-01: UML superstructure, v2.2 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Henderson-Sellers, B., Bulthuis, A.: Object-Oriented Metamethods. Springer, New York (1998)

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  16. OMG: UML Semantics, Version 1.0. OMG document ad/97-01-03 (January 13, 1997)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Graham, I., Henderson-Sellers, B., Younessi, H.: The OPEN Process Specification. Addison-Wesley, Harlow (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Firesmith, D.G., Henderson-Sellers, B.: The OPEN Process Framework. Addison-Wesley, Harlow (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  19. OMG: Software Process Engineering Metamodel Specification. OMG document formal/02-11-14 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Standards Australia: Standard Metamodel for Software Development Methodologies, AS 4651-2004, Standards Australia, Sydney (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  21. ISO/IEC: Software Engineering – Metamodel for Software Development. ISO/IEC 24744, Geneva, Switzerland (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Odell, J., Parunak, H.V.D., Bauer, B.: Extending UML for Agents. In: Wagner, G., Lesperance, Y., Yu, E. (eds.) Procs. Agent-Oriented Information Systems Workshop, 17th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Austin, TX, USA, pp. 3–17 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Zachman, J.A.: A Framework for Information Systems Architecture. IBM Systems J. 26(3), 276–292 (1987)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. OMG: Software & Systems Process Engineering Meta-Model Specification. Version 2.0, OMG Document Number: formal/2008-04-01 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  25. ISO/IEC: Software Life Cycle Processes. ISO/IEC 12207. International Standards Organization / International Electrotechnical Commission (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Kühne, T.: Matters of (Meta-)modeling. Softw. Syst. Model. 5, 369–385 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Rolland, C., Prakash, N.: A Proposal for Context-specific Method Engineering. In: Brinkkemper, S., Lyytinen, K., Welke, R.J. (eds.) Method Engineering. Principles of Method Construction and Too Support. Procs. IFIP TC8, WG8.1/8.2 Working Conference on Method Engineering, Atlanta, USA, August 26-28, pp. 191–208. Chapman & Hall, London (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Henderson-Sellers, B.: On the Challenges of Correctly using Metamodels in Method Engineering. In: Fujita, H., Pisanelli, D. (eds.) New Trends in Software Methodologies, Tools and Techniques. Proceedings of the sixth SoMeT 2007, pp. 3–35. IOS Press, Amsterdam (200)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Lindland, O.I., Sindre, G., Solvberg, A.: Understanding Quality in Conceptual Modeling. IEEE Software 11(2), 42–49 (1994)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Wahl, T., Sindre, G.: An Analytical Evaluation of BPMN using a Semiotic Quality Framework. In: Siau, K. (ed.) Advanced Topics in Database Research, vol. 5, ch. VI, pp. 102–113. Idea Group Inc., Hershey (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Recker, J.C., zur Muehlen, M., Siau, K., Erickson, J., Indulska, M.: Measuring Method Complexity: UML versus BPMN. In: Procs 15th Americas Conf. on Information Systems, San Francisco, CA, USA, August 6-9 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Rossi, M., Brinkkemper, S.: Complexity Metrics for Systems Development Methods and Techniques. Information Systems 21(2), 209–227 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Ma, H., Shao, W., Zhang, L., Ma, Z., Jiang, Y.: Applying OO Metrics to Assess UML Meta-models. In: Baar, T., Strohmeier, A., Moreira, A., Mellor, S.J. (eds.) UML 2004. LNCS, vol. 3273, pp. 12–26. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Opdahl, A., Henderson-Sellers, B.: Ontological Evaluation of the UML using the Bunge-Wand-Weber Model. Software and Systems Modelling 1(1), 43–67 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  35. Genero, M., Piattini, M., Calero, C.: A Survey of Metrics for UML Class Diagrams. Journal of Object Technology 4(9), 59–92 (2005), http://www.jot.fm/issues/issue_2005_11/article1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Unhelkar, B.: Verification and Validation for Quality of UML 2.0 Models. J. Wiley and Sons, Chichester (2005)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  37. Aguilar, E.R., Ruiz, F., Garcia, F., Piattini, M.: Evaluation Measures for Business Process models. In: Procs 2006 ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, pp. 1567–1568. ACM, New York (2006)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  38. Fowler, M.: Analysis Patterns. Addison-Wesley, Reading (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  39. Gamma, E., Helm, R., Johnson, R., Vlissides, J.: Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software. Addison-Wesley, Reading (1995)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  40. Rising, L.: The Pattern Almanac 2000. Addison-Wesley, Reading (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  41. Roberts, D., Johnson, R.: Patterns for Evolving Frameworks. In: Martin, R.C., Riehle, D., Buschmann, F. (eds.) Pattern Languages of Program Design 3, pp. 471–486. Addison-Wesley Longman, Amsterdam (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  42. Opdahl, A., Henderson-Sellers, B.: Template-based Definition of Information Systems and Enterprise Modelling Constructs. In: Green, P., Rosemann, M. (eds.) Business Systems Analysis with Ontologies, pp. 105–129. Idea Group, Hershey (2005)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  43. Opdahl, A.L., Henderson-Sellers, B., Barbier, F.: Ontological Analysis of Whole-Part Relationships in OO Models. Information and Software Technology 43(6), 387–399 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Wand, Y., Weber, R.: On the Ontological Expressiveness of Information Systems Analysis and Design Grammars. Journal of Information Systems 3, 217–237 (1993)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Wand, Y., Weber, R.: On the Deep Structure of Information Systems. Information Systems Journal 5, 203–223 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Genero, M., Piattini, M., Calero, C. (eds.): Metrics for Software Conceptual Models. Imperial College Press, London (2005)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  47. Shekhovtsov, V.A.: On Conceptualization of Quality. Paper presented at Dagstuhl Seminar on Conceptual Modelling, April 27-30 (2008) (preprint on conference website)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Henderson-Sellers, B., Gonzalez-Perez, C. (2010). Granularity in Conceptual Modelling: Application to Metamodels. In: Parsons, J., Saeki, M., Shoval, P., Woo, C., Wand, Y. (eds) Conceptual Modeling – ER 2010. ER 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6412. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16373-9_16

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16373-9_16

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-16372-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-16373-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics