Showing papers by "Giancarlo Guizzardi published in 2018"

The Common Ontology of Value and Risk

Abstract: Risk analysis is traditionally accepted as a complex and critical activity in various contexts, such as strategic planning and software development. Given its complexity, several modeling approaches have been proposed to help analysts in representing and analyzing risks. Naturally, having a clear understanding of the nature of risk is fundamental for such an activity. Yet, risk is still a heavily overloaded and conceptually unclear notion, despite the wide number of efforts to properly characterize it, including a series of international standards. In this paper, we address this issue by means of an in-depth ontological analysis of the notion of risk. In particular, this analysis shows a surprising and important result, namely, that the notion of risk is irreducibly intertwined with the notion of value and, more specifically, that risk assessment is a particular case of value ascription. As a result, we propose a concrete artifact, namely, the Common Ontology of Value and Risk, which we employ to harmonize different conceptions of risk existing in the literature.

Endurant Types in Ontology-Driven Conceptual Modeling: Towards OntoUML 2.0

Abstract: For over a decade now, a community of researchers has contributed to the development of the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO) - aimed at providing foundations for all major conceptual modeling constructs. This ontology has led to the development of an Ontology-Driven Conceptual Modeling language dubbed OntoUML, reflecting the ontological micro-theories comprising UFO. Over the years, UFO and OntoUML have been successfully employed in a number of academic, industrial and governmental settings to create conceptual models in a variety of different domains. These experiences have pointed out to opportunities of improvement not only to the language itself but also to its underlying theory. In this paper, we take the first step in that direction by revising the theory of types in UFO in response to empirical evidence. The new version of this theory shows that many of the meta-types present in OntoUML (differentiating Kinds, Roles, Phases, Mixins, etc.) should be considered not as restricted to Substantial types but instead should be applied to model Endurant Types in general, including Relator types, Quality types and Mode types. We also contribute a formal characterization of this fragment of the theory, which is then used to advance a metamodel for OntoUML 2.0. Finally, we propose a computational support tool implementing this updated metamodel.

Ontological foundations for software requirements with a focus on requirements at runtime

Abstract: The use of Requirements at Runtime (RRT) is an emerging research area. Many methods and frameworks that make use of requirements models during software execution can be found in the literature. However, there is still a lack of a formal and explicit representation of what RRT are and what are the primary goals of their use. Still, most RRT proposals have their own modeling languages and ways to represent, specify and make use of requirements at runtime, thus resulting in a domain with overloaded concepts. In this paper, we intend to clarify the main notions involved in RRT, establishing an explicit common conceptualization regarding this domain. To do so, we need first to understand what software execution is, as well as what requirements are. Thus, we present three related domain ontologies: the Software Ontology (SwO), an ontology about software nature and execution, the Reference Software Requirements Ontology (RSRO), which addresses what requirements are and types of requirements, and the Runtime Requirements Ontology (RRO), which extends SwO and RSRO to represent the nature and context of RRT. For developing these ontologies, we follow SABiO, a well-established Ontology Engineering method. Moreover, all the three ontologies are grounded in the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO) and are integrated into the Software Engineering Ontology Network (SEON). Finally, as prescribed by SABiO, the ontologies are evaluated using ontology verification and validation techniques.

Multi-level Conceptual Modeling: From a Formal Theory to a Well-Founded Language

Abstract: Subject domains are often conceptualized with entities stratified into a rigid two-level structure: a level of classes and a level of individuals which instantiate these classes. Multi-level modeling extends the conventional two-level classification scheme by admitting classes that are also instances of other classes, a feature which is key in a number of subject domains. Despite the advances in multi-level modeling in the last decade, a number of requirements arising from representation needs in subject domains have not yet been addressed in current modeling approaches. In this paper, we tackle this issue by proposing an expressive multi-level conceptual modeling language (dubbed ML2). We follow a principled approach in the design of ML2, constructing its abstract syntax as to reflect a formal theory for multi-level modeling (termed MLT*). We show that ML2 enables the expression of a number of multi-level modeling scenarios that cannot be currently expressed in the existing multi-level modeling languages. A textual syntax for ML2 is provided with an implementation in Xtext.

Conceptual Modeling of Legal Relations

Abstract: Legal relations abound in conceptual modeling. Despite that, the representation of these relations in the area has not yet received sufficient theoretical support. We address this by establishing a basis for the well-founded representation of legal relations. We capture a comprehensive set of legal relations (and legal positions within these legal relations) that arise from widely accepted legal theories into a legal core ontology called UFO-L [14, 15], which is grounded on the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO). We rely on the Theory of Constitutional Rights proposed by the philosopher of law Robert Alexy. This theory extends the system of legal positions proposed by the jurist Wesley Hohfeld, which has been used as a theoretical basis for several works in the conceptual modeling literature. The result is a modeling strategy for legal relations that in- corporates patterns from the legal core ontology. We present here a synthesis of empirical studies conducted to evaluate the aforementioned results. The studies show that the approach based on UFO-L produces models that are more comprehensible and clear for the representation of legal contracts.

Reification and Truthmaking Patterns

Abstract: Reification is a standard technique in conceptual modeling, which consists of including in the domain of discourse entities that may otherwise be hidden or implicit. However, deciding what should be reified is not always easy. Recent work on formal ontology offers us a simple answer: put in the domain of discourse those entities that are responsible for the (alleged) truth of our propositions. These are called truthmakers. Re-visiting previous work, we propose in this paper a systematic analysis of truthmaking patterns for properties and relations based on the ontological nature of their truthmakers. Truthmaking patterns will be presented as generalization of reification patterns, accounting for the fact that, in some cases, we do not reify a property or a relationship directly, but we rather reify its truthmakers.

Breaking into pieces: An ontological approach to conceptual model complexity management

Abstract: In recent years, there has been a growth in the use of reference conceptual models, in general, and domain ontologies, in particular, to capture information about complex and critical domains. These models play a fundamental role in different types of critical semantic interoperability tasks. Therefore, it is essential that domain experts are able to understand and reason using the models' content. In other words, it is important that conceptual models are cognitively tractable. However, it is unavoidable that when the information of the represented domain grows, so does the size and complexity of the artifacts and models that represent them. For this reason, more sophisticated techniques for complexity management in ontology-driven conceptual models, need to be developed. Some approaches are based on the notion of model modularization. In this paper, we follow the work on model modularization to present an approach for view extraction for the ontology-driven conceptual modeling language OntoUML. We provide a formal definition for ontological views over OntoUML conceptual models that completely leverages on the ontologically well-grounded real-world semantics of that language. Moreover, we present a plug-in tool, particularly developed for an OntoUML model-based editor that implements this formal view structure in terms of queries defined over the OntoUML metamodel embedded in that tool.

Towards an Ontology of Software Defects, Errors and Failures

Abstract: The rational management of software defects is a fundamental requirement for a mature software industry. Standards, guides and capability models directly emphasize how important it is for an organization to know and to have a well-established history of failures, errors and defects as they occur in software activities. The problem is that each of these reference models employs its own vocabulary to deal with these phenomena, which can lead to a deficiency in the understanding of these notions by software engineers, potential interoperability problems between supporting tools, and, consequently, to a poorer adoption of these standards and tools in practice. We address this problem of the lack of a consensual conceptualization in this area by proposing a reference conceptual model (domain ontology) of Software Defects, Errors and Failures, which takes into account an ecosystem of software artifacts. The ontology is grounded on the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO) and is based on well-known standards, guides and capability models. We demonstrate how this approach can suitably promote conceptual clarification and terminological harmonization in this area.

Towards an Ontology of Scenes and Situations

Abstract: It is no surprise that the notion of situation is key to situation awareness. The development of the discipline can thus benefit from careful analysis of the notion. In this paper, we approach this by proposing an ontology of situations and scenes. The main contribution of this ontology is that it accounts for how situations progress in time changing qualitatively, constituting what we call scenes. The ontology is built by reusing basic elements from the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO). It addresses objects, occurrences, and their formal relations to situations and scenes. We use the theory of embodiment proposed by the philosopher Kit Fine to explicate how scenes and situations form wholes constituted of parts.

Ontological Analysis and Redesign of Risk Modeling in ArchiMate

Abstract: Risk analysis is a complex and critical activity in various contexts, ranging from strategic planning to IT systems operation. Given its complexity, several Enterprise Architecture (EA) frameworks and modeling languages have been developed to help analysts in representing and analyzing risks. Yet, the notion of risk remains overloaded and conceptually unclear in most of them. In this paper, we investigate the real-world semantics underlying risk-related constructs in one of such approaches, namely ArchiMate's Risk and Security Overlay (RSO). We perform this investigation by means of ontological analysis to reveal semantic limitations in the overlay, such as ambiguity and missing constructs. Building on the results of this analysis, we propose a well-founded redesign of the risk modeling aspects of the RSO.

On the Ontological Nature of REA Core Relations.

Abstract: In this paper we review and discuss some recent attempts at ontological re-engineering of REA in the light of the UFO ontology and the OntoUML language, focusing in particular on different choices concerning the UFO notion of relator. We also take this as an opportunity to clarify and revise Guarino and Guizzardi’s general theory of reification and truthmaking proposed in the past.

Ontological Foundations of Competition

Abstract: It is widely recognized that accurately identifying and classifying competitors is a challenge for many companies and entrepreneurs. Nonetheless, it is a paramount activity which provide valuable insights that affect a wide range of strategic decisions. One of the main challenges in competitor identification lies in the complex nature of the competitive relationships that arise in business environments. These have been extensively investigate over the years, which lead to a plethora of competition theories and frameworks. Still, the concept of competition remains conceptually complex, as none of these approaches properly formalized their assumptions. In this paper, we address this issue by means of an ontological analysis on the notion of competition in general, and of business competition, in particular, leveraging theories from various fields, including Marketing, Strategic Management, Ecology, Psychology and Cognitive Sciences. Our analysis, the first of its kind in the literature, is grounded on the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO) and allows us to formally characterize why competition arises, as well as to distinguish between three types of business competitive relationships, namely market-level, firm-level and potential competition.

Towards an Ontological Modelling of Preference Relations

Abstract: Preference relations are intensively studied in Economics, but they are also approached in AI, Knowledge Representation, and Conceptual Modelling, as they provide a key concept in a variety of domains of application. In this paper, we propose an ontological foundation of preference relations to formalise their essential aspects across domains. Firstly, we shall discuss what is the ontological status of the relata of a preference relation. Secondly, we investigate the place of preference relations within a rich taxonomy of relations (e.g. we ask whether they are internal or external, essential or contingent, descriptive or non-descriptive relations). Finally, we provide an ontological modelling of preference relation as a module of a foundational (or upper) ontology (viz. OntoUML).

What's Cracking? How Image Schema Combinations Can Model Conceptualisations of Events.

Abstract: Image schema profiles are described as clusters of spatiotemporal relationships learned from embodied experiences and function as the gathered conceptual information for event concepts. Looking at such profiles allows not only to model aspects of human conceptualisation but also offers a method to approach event conceptualisation for more formal purposes. This article investigates this research program by looking closer at how humans conceptualise events and specifies three combination methods of image schema profiles that each offer different aspects for concept construction. As a proof of concept, we present an in-depth analysis of the classic commonsense reasoning problem of ‘Cracking an Egg’ as a demonstration of how these profiles can be used in formal knowledge representation. This is formalised using the Image Schema Logic, ISLM , a combined logic targeted at the spatiotemporal relationships present in image schemas.

Towards an Ontology of Competition.

Abstract: It is widely recognized that accurately identifying competitors is a challenge for many companies and entrepreneurs. It is one that they cannot escape from, as failing to do so is a recipe for problems. Amongst other factors, competitor identification is challenging because of the complex nature of the competitive relationships that arise in business environments. In this paper, we tackle this issue by means of an initial ontological analysis on competition grounded in the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO). Our analysis, the first of its kind in the literature, allows us to explain why and when competition arises, as well as to distinguish between different three types of competitive relationships, namely direct, indirect and potential competition.

Under the Super-Suit: What Superheroes Can Reveal About Inherited properties in Conceptual Blending

Abstract: Conceptual blending has been proposed as the cognitive machinery for concept generation. While computational approaches to conceptual blending have been implemented with some success, the automatic approaches still struggle to consistently produce concepts and blends that ‘make sense’ and have value. Mechanisms and optimality principles for blending have been introduced, yet their formal integration remains sparse. In this paper, we suggest to partly bypass this problem by identifying some conceptual heuristics for blending. This is done through a top-down analysis of three prototypical superheroes, an exemplary domain for conceptual blends and human imagination. We formalise the superheroes and backtrace their properties into their respective input spaces and from there map the inherited properties to cognitive theories for conceptualisation. It is our belief that computational blending systems could greatly benefit from conceptual heuristics for blending, identified in this top-down fashion. As a proof of concept of the identified superhero-blending heuristics, we blend the superhero ‘Flowerman’.

Multi-Level Conceptual Modeling: Theory and Applications.

Abstract: Conceptual models are often built with techniques which propose a strict stratification of entities into two classification levels: a level of types (or classes) and a level of instances. Despite that, there are several situations in which domains of inquiry transcend the conventional two-level stratification and domain experts use types of types (or categories of categories) to articulate their conceptualizations. In these settings, types are instances of other types and multiple levels of classification can be identified (individuals, classes, metaclasses, metametaclasses, and so on), characterizing what is now called “multi-level modeling”. Over the last years, we have worked out a foundational theory for multi-level modeling (dubbed MLT), whose aim is to clarify the basic elements of multi-level conceptual modeling. This paper describes the development of this theory, and reports on some of its applications, namely: the detection of (thousands of) occurrences of anti-patterns in the Wikidata knowledge base and the revision of the powertype pattern in UML.

Individual Determinacy and Identity Criteria in Ontology-Driven Information Systems.

Abstract: The idea that the real-world entities referred to by Information Systems are determinate and uniquely identifiable is a commonly held assumption in the fields of Software Engineering and Database Systems. The concept of identity is also a central topic in Formal Ontology, a discipline that finds application in the field of Information Systems through the use of Foundational Ontologies (FOs). However, while most central concepts of Formal Ontology are, in general explicitly addressed in FOs, the concept of identity has received relatively little attention. The lack of a proper ontological characterization of identity in FOs hinders their application to the analysis of issues related to identification in Information Systems, such as those that arise in conceptual modeling or in database design. This work proposes two distinct, but logically equivalent, formal characterizations of the notion of individual determinacy. Moreover, these characterizations are independent of the particularities of a FO’s theory and are defined solely in terms of the structure of the FO’s models of portions of reality. Finally, it also introduces a few concepts that are useful in the analysis of identity criteria for the individuals represented using a FO’s theory.