An Ontological Metamodel of Classifiers and Its Application to Conceptual Modelling and Database Design.

Classification is a key concept in conceptual modeling. However, the recognition that there might be different kinds of classes has received limited attention in conceptual modeling research. Most work has focused on the concept of role. However, confusion exists on the definition, properties, and representation of role. In this paper, we propose a metamodel of classifiers based on ontological foundations. We focus on the notion of role in the object-oriented and conceptual modeling literature. The metamodel conforms to the fundamental role features identified in the literature and handles several problems associated with role modeling. Furthermore, we contrast conceptual models created using our metamodel to those created using traditional ER or class modeling approaches, and highlight the database design implications of the differences. Using examples, we demonstrate that relational database schemata generated using our approach are more stable with respect to changing requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]