Conceptual Modeling

Conceptual modeling is about describing the semantics of software applications at a high level of abstraction. Specifically, conceptual modelers (1) describe structure models in terms of entities, relationships, and constraints; (2) describe behavior or functional models in terms of states, transitions among states, and actions performed in states and transitions; and (3) describe interactions and user interfaces in terms of messages sent and received and information exchanged. In their typical usage, conceptual-model diagrams are high-level abstractions that enable clients and analysts to understand one another, enable analysts to communicate successfully with application programmers, and in some cases automatically generate (parts of) the software application.

• Provide the right set of modeling constructs at the right level of abstraction to enable successfully communication among clients, analysts, and application programmers.
• Formalize conceptual-modeling abstractions so that they retain their ease-of-communication property and yet are able to (partially or even fully) generate functioning application software.
• Make conceptual modeling serve as analysis and development tools for exotic applications such as:
  • modeling the computational features of DNA-level life to improve human genome understanding,
  • annotating text conceptually in order to superimpose a web of knowledge over document collections,
  • leveraging conceptual models to integrate data (virtually or actually) providing users with a unified view of a collection of data,
  • extending conceptual-modeling to support geometric and spatial modeling, and
  • managing the evolution and migration information systems.
• Develop a theory of conceptual models and conceptual modeling and establish a formal foundation of conceptual modeling.

• Dimitris Karagiannis, Heinrich C. Mayr, John Mylopoulos (eds.), Domain-Specific Conceptual Modeling: Concepts, Methods and Tools, Springer, 2016.
• D.W. Embley and B. Thalheim (eds.), The Handbook of Conceptual Modeling: Theory, Practice, and Research Challenges, Springer, 2011.
• A. Olivé, Conceptual Modeling of Information Systems, Springer, 2007.
• O. Pastor and J.C. Molina, Model-Driven Architecture in Practice: A Software Production Environment Based on Conceptual Modeling, Springer, 2007.
• B. Thalheim, Entity-Relationship Modeling: Foundations of Database Technology, Springer, 2000.
• M.P. Papazoglou, S. Spaccapietra, and Z. Tari (eds.), Advances in Object-Oriented Data Modeling, The MIT Press, 2000.
• P.P. Chen, J. Akoka, H. Kangassalo, B. Thalheim, Conceptual Modeling: Current Issues and Future Directions, Springer, 1999.
• D.W. Embley, B.D. Kurtz, and S.N. Woodfield, Object-Oriented Systems Analysis: A Model-Driven Approach, Prentice Hall, 1992.
• C. Batini, S. Ceri, S.B. Navathe, Conceptual Database Design: An Entity-Relationship Approach, Addison Wesley, 1991.
• M.L. Brodie, J. Mylopoulos, J.W. Schmidt (eds.), On Conceptual Modelling: Perspectives from Artificial Intelligence, Databases, and Programming Languages, Springer, 1984.