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
Some Research Challenges in Conceptual Modeling:
Provide the right set of modeling constructs at the right level of abstraction
to enable successfully communication among clients, analysts, and application
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
annotating text conceptually in order to superimpose a web of knowledge over
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.
D.W. Embley and B. Thalheim (eds.),
The Handbook of Conceptual Modeling" Theory, Practice, and Research
Challenges, Springer, 2011.
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.
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,
D.W. Embley, B.D. Kurtz, and S.N. Woodfield,
Object-Oriented Systems Analysis: A Model-Driven Approach, Prentice Hall,
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.