Classification and Ontological Aspects in Software Engineering

CAISE*06 Workshop on Philosophical Foundations on Information Systems Engineering

María del Pilar Romay ; Carlos E. Cuesta

Others  :  http://CEUR-WS.org/Vol-240/paper9.pdf
PID  :  12703

来源: CEUR

【 摘 要 】

The organization of objects into classes and categories is an essential task in the process of forming concepts. Within computer science, this classifica- tion activity must be supported by a well-founded representation system; among the alternatives, ontologies appear as a particularly suitable choice. Classification has therefore an ontological nature, as it both defines a system of categories, in the philosophical sense, and is founded by some ontology, in the computational sense. However, there is an implicit duality; classes are both conceived within an ontological hierarchy and expressed as a linguistic structure. These often conflict. Our proposal is to tackle this problem by definining two orthogonal dimensions, namely an ontological one and a metalingistic one, to separate these perspectives. But once dimensions have been defined, some other proposals appear. For instance, different ontological hierarchies are perceived from different viewpoints and domains; a subjective dimension is therefore provided to include them. Similarly, the evolution of elements though the software lifecycle suggests to classify the outcomes of different phases; then a time-aware evolutionary dimension is also defined. These four coordinates provide a precise and flexible classification framework. We suggest that recent advances in Software Engineering, particularly model-driven approaches, require the definition of such a framework.