Abstract
Fact-oriented modeling is a conceptual approach that enables one to model and query business domains in terms of the underlying facts of interest, where all facts and rules may be verbalized in language readily understandable by non-technical users of those business domains. Unlike Entity-Relationship modeling and object-oriented modeling, fact-oriented modeling treats all facts as relationships (unary, binary, ternary etc.). Grouping of facts into attribute-based structures (e.g. ER entities, UML objects, database relations, XML elements) is considered a lower level, implementation issue that is irrelevant to capturing the essential business semantics. This chapter provides a brief history of the fact-oriented modeling approach, illustrates its main concepts and benefits via a case study, reviews the current state of the art in terms of methodology and tooling perspectives, and identifies several topics for future research.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Abrial, J.R. (1974) Data Semantics. In: Klimbie JW, Koffeman KL (eds) Data Base Management. North-Holland, Amsterdam, pp 1–60
Azizah, F.N., Bakema, G. (2006) Data Modeling Patterns using Fully Communication Oriented Information Modeling. In: Meersman R et al. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2006: OTM 2006 Workshops, LNCS vol 4278. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 1221–1230.
Balsters, H., Carver, A., Halpin, T., Morgan, T. (2006) Modeling Dynamic Rules in ORM. In: Meersman R et al. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2006: OTM 2006 Workshops, LNCS vol 4278. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York
Bakema, G., Zwart, J., van der Lek, H. (2000) Fully Communication Oriented Information Modelling. Ten Hagen Stam, The Netherlands.
Bird, L.J. (1997) Data Reverse Engineering: From a relational database system to a 3-dimensional conceptual schema. PhD thesis, University of Queensland.
Bird, L., Goodchild A, Halpin T (2000) Object Role Modeling and XML Schema. In: Conceptual Modeling — ER2000, Proc. 19th ER Conference, Salt Lake City, October 2000, LNCS vol 1920. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 309–322
Bloesch, A., Halpin, T. (1997) Conceptual queries using ConQuer-II. In: Proc ER’97: 16th Int. Conf. on Conceptual Modeling, LNCS vol 1331. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 113–126
Bollen, P. (2002) A Formal Transformation from Object Role Models to UML class diagrams. In: Proc. EMMSAD’02 Workshop, Toronto.
Bollen, P. (2006) Using Fact-orientation for Instructional design. In: Meersman R, Tari Z, Herrero P et al. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2006: OTM 2006 Workshops, LNCS vol 4278. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 1231–1241
Bommel, P. van, Hoppenbrouwers, S., Proper, H., Weide, Th P. van der (2006) Exploring Modelling Strategies in a Meta-modelling Context. In: Meersman R et al. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2006: OTM 2006 Workshops, LNCS vol 4278. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 1128–1137
Bruza, P.D., Weide, Th P. van der (1989) The Semantics of TRIDL, Technical Report 89-17, Department of Information Systems, University of Nijmegen.
Campbell, L., Halpin, T. (1993) Automated Support for Conceptual to External Mapping. In: Brinkkemper S, Harmsen F (eds) Proc 4th Workshop on Next Generation CASE Tools, Univ. Twente Memoranda Informatica 93-32, Paris (June), pp 35–51
Campbell, L., Halpin, T. (1994) The reverse engineering of relational databases. In: Proc 5th Workshop on Next Generation CASE Tools, Utrecht.
Campbell, L., Halpin, T., Proper, H. (1996) Conceptual Schemas with Abstractions: making flat conceptual schemas more comprehensible. Data Knowl Eng 20(1): 39–85.
Curland, M., Halpin, T. (2007) Model Driven Development with NORMA. In: Proc. HICSS-40, CD-ROM, IEEE Computer Society.
Cuyler, D., Halpin, T. (2005) Two Meta-Models for Object-Role Modeling. In: Krogstie J, Halpin T, Siau K (eds) Information Modeling Methods and Methodologies, Idea Publishing Group, Hershey, pp 17–42
Chen, P.P. (1976) The entity-relationship model—towards a unified view of data. ACM Transactions on Database Systems, 1(1), pp 9–36
De Troyer, O. (1993) On Data Schema Transformations, PhD thesis, Uni. Tilburg.
De Troyer, O., Meersman, R. (1995) A logic framework for a semantics of object oriented data modeling. In: OOER’95: Object-Oriented and Entity-Relationship Modeling, LNCS vol. 1021. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 238–249
De Troyer, O., Castelyn, S., Plessers, P. (2005). Using ORM to Model Web Systems. In: Meersman R et al. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2005: OTM 2005 Workshops, LNCS vol 3762. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp. 700–709
Dietz, J.L.G. (2005) A World Ontology Specification Language. In: Meersman R et al. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2005: OTM 2005 Workshops, LNCS vol 3762. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 688–699
Dietz, J.L.G., Halpin, T. (2004) Using DEMO and ORM in Concert: A Case Study. In: Siau K (ed) Advanced Topics in Database Research, vol. 3, Idea Group, Hershey
Dumas, M., Aldred, L., ter Hofstede, A. (2002) From Conceptual Models to Constrained Web Forms. In: Kashyap V, Shklar L (eds) Real World Semantic Web Applications, IOS Press, pp 50–68
Embley, D.W. (1998) Object Database Development, Addison-Wesley.
Embley, D.W., Wu, H.A., Pinkston, J.S., Czejdo, B. (1996) OSM-QL: a calculus-based graphical query language, Tech Report, Brigham Young University, Utah
Evans, K. (2005) Requirements Engineering with ORM, In: Meersman R et al. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2005: OTM 2005 Workshops, LNCS vol 3762. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 646–655
Everest, G. (1994) Experiences teaching NIAM/OR modeling. In: Nijssen GM, Sharp J (eds), NIAM-ISDM 1994 Conf. Working papers, Albuquerque, pp N1–26
Falkenberg, E. (1976) Concepts for modeling information. In: Nijssen GM (ed) Proc. 1976 IFIP Working Conf. on Modelling in Data Base Management Systems, North-Holland Publishing, pp 95–109
Falkenberg, E., van der Weide, Th. P. (1988) Formal Description of the TOP Model, Technical Report 88-01, Department of Information Systems, University of Nijmegen
Habrias, H. (1993) Normalized Object Oriented Method. In: Encyclopedia of Microcomputers, vol. 12, Marcel Dekker, New York, pp 271–285
Halpin, T. (1989) A Logical Analysis of Information Systems: static aspects of the data-oriented perspective, PhD thesis, University of Queensland
Halpin, T. (2000) Integrating fact-oriented modeling with object-oriented modeling. In: Siau K, Rossi M (eds) Information Modeling for the new Millenium, Idea Group Publishing, Hershey, pp 150–166
Halpin, T. (2000) Modeling collections in UML and ORM. In: Proc EMMSAD’00: 5th IFIP WG8.1 Int Workshop on Evaluation of Modeling Methods in Systems Analysis and Design, Kista, Sweden
Halpin, T. (2001) Information Modeling and Relational Databases, Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco.
Halpin, T. (2002) Information Analysis in UML and ORM: a Comparison. In: Siau K (ed) Advanced Topics in Database Research, vol. 1, Idea Group, Hershey
Halpin, T. (2004) Comparing Metamodels for ER, ORM and UML Data Models. In: Siau K (ed) Advanced Topics in Database Research, vol. 3, Idea Group, Hershey
Halpin, T. (2004) Business Rule Verbalization. In: Doroshenko A, Halpin T, Liddle S, Mayr H (eds) Information Systems Technology and its Applications, Proc. ISTA-2004, Salt Lake City, Lec. Notes in Informatics, vol. P-48, pp 39–52
Halpin, T. (2005) Constraints on Conceptual Join Paths. In: Krogstie J, Halpin T, Siau K (eds) Information Modeling Methods and Methodologies, Idea Group, Hershey
Halpin, T. (2005) Higher-Order Types and Information Modeling. In: Siau K (ed) Advanced Topics in Database Research, vol. 4, Idea Pub. Group, Hershey, pp 218–237
Halpin, T. (2005) Objectification. In: Castro J, Teniente E (eds) Proc. CAiSE’05 Workshops, FEUP, Porto, pp 519–532
Halpin, T. (2005) Fact-Orientation Meets Agent-Orientation. In: Bresciani P et al. (eds) Agent-Oriented Information Systems II, LNAI vol 3508, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 97–109
Halpin, T. (2005) Information Modeling in UML and ORM: A Comparison. In: Khosrow-Pour M (ed) Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, vol. 3, Idea Publishing Group, Hershey, pp 1471–1475
Halpin, T. (2005) ORM 2. In: Meersman R et al. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2005: OTM 2005 Workshops, LNCS vol 3762. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 676–687
Halpin, T. (2006) Object-Role Modeling (ORM/NIAM). In: Bernus P, Mertins K, Schmidt G (eds) Handbook on Architectures of Information Systems, 2 nd edition, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, Heidelberg, pp 81–103
Halpin, T. (2006) Business Rule Modality. In: Latour T, Petit M (eds) Proc. CAiSE’06 Workshops, Namur University Press, pp 383–394
Halpin, T., Bloesch, A. (1999) Data modeling in UML and ORM: a comparison. Journal of Database Management, 10(4): 4–13
Halpin, T., Curland, M. (2006) Automated Verbalization for ORM 2. In: Meersman R et al. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2006: OTM 2006 Workshops, LNCS vol 4278. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 1181–1190
Halpin, T., Evans, K., Hallock, P., MacLean, W. (2003) Database Modeling with Microsoft® Visio for Enterprise Architects, Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco.
Halpin, T., Proper, H. 1995, ‘Subtyping and polymorphism in Object-Role Modeling’, Data and Knowledge Engineering, 15: 251–281.
Halpin, T, Proper, H. (1995) Database schema transformation and optimization. In: Papazoglou M (ed) OOER’95: Object-Oriented and Entity-Relationship Modeling, LNCS vol 1021. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 191–203
Halpin, T., Vermeir, D. (1997) Default reasoning in information systems. In: Database Applications Semantics, Chapman & Hall, London, pp 423–441
Halpin, T., Wagner, G. (2003) Modeling Reactive Behavior in ORM’. Conceptual Modeling — ER2003, LNCS vol 2813. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 567–569
ter Hofstede, A.H.M. (1993) Information Modelling in Data Intensive Domains, PhD thesis, University of Nijmegen
Hansen, J., dela Cruz, N. (2006) Evolution of a Dynamic Multidimensional Denormalization Meta Model Using Object Role Modeling. In: Meersman R et al. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2006: OTM 2006 Workshops, LNCS vol 4278. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 1160–69
Henricksen, K., Indulska, J., McFadden, T. (2005) Modelling Context Information with ORM. In: Meersman R et al. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2005: OTM 2005 Workshops, LNCS vol 3762. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York
ter Hofstede, A.H.M., Proper, H.A., Weide, Th.P. van der (1993) Formal definition of a conceptual language for the description and manipulation of information models, Information Systems, vol. 18, no. 7, pp 489–523
ter Hofstede, A.H.M., Weide, Th.P van der (1993) Expressiveness in conceptual data modeling’, Data and Knowl Eng 10(1): 65–100
Hoppenbrouwers, S., Lindeman, H., Properm H. (2006) Capturing Modeling Processes—Towards the MODial Modeling Laboratory. In: Meersman R et al. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2006: OTM 2006 Workshops, LNCS vol 4278. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 1242–1252
Hoppenbrouwers, S., Proper, H., Weidem Th.P. van der (2005), Fact Calculus: Using ORM and Lisa-D to Reason about Domains. In: Meersman R et al. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2005: OTM 2005 Workshops, LNCS vol 3762. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 720–729
Jarrar, M. (2005) Modularization and Automatic Composition of Object-Role Modeling (ORM) Schemes. In: Meersman R et al. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2005: OTM 2005 Workshops, LNCS vol 3762. Springer.
Keet, M. (2005) Using Abstractions to facilitate Management of Large ORM Models. In: Meersman R et al. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2005: OTM 2005 Workshops, LNCS vol 3762. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 603–612
Keet, M. (2006) Part-Whole Relations in Object-Role Models. In: Meersman R et al. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2006: OTM 2006 Workshops, LNCS vol 4278. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 1118–1127
Kent, W. (1977) Entities and relationships in Information. In: Nijssen GM (ed) Proc 1977 IFIP Working Conf on Modelling in Data Base Management Systems, Nice, France, North-Holland Publishing, pp 67–91
Kent, W. (2000) Data and Reality, 2nd edition, 1stBooks Library, Bloomington.
Meersman, R. (1982) The RIDL conceptual language, Research report, Int. Centre for Information Analysis Services, Control Data Belgium, Brussels.
Mok, W., Embley, D. (1996) Transforming conceptual model to objectoriented database designs: practicalities, properties and peculiarities. In: Proc ER’96: 15th Int. Conf. on conceptual modeling, LNCS, vol. 1157. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York
Morgan, T. (2006) Some Features of State Machines in ORM. In: Meersman R et al. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2006: OTM 2006 Workshops, LNCS vol 4278. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 1211–1220
Nijssen, G.M. (1976) A gross architecture for the next generation database management systems. In: Nijssen GM (ed) Proc. 1976 IFIP Working Conf. on Modelling in Data Base Management Systems, Freudenstadt, Germany, North-Holland Publishing
Nijssen, G.M. (1977) Current issues in conceptual schema concepts. In: Nijssen GM (ed) Proc. 1977 IFIP Working Conf. on Modelling in Data Base Management Systems, Nice, France, North-Holland Publishing, pp 31–66
Oaks, P., ter Hofstede, A., Edmond, D., Spork, M. (2003) Extending conceptual models for web based applications, Conceptual Modeling — ER2003, Proc. 22nd ER Conference, Chicago, LNCS vol 2813. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 216–245
Object Management Group 2003, UML 2.0 Superstructure Specification. Online at: www.omg.org/uml.
Object Management Group 2005, UML OCL 2.0 Specification. Online at: http://www.omg.org/docs/ptc/05-06-06.pdf.
Object Management Group 2006, Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules Interim Specification. Online at: www.omg.org/cgibin/doc?dtc/06-03-02.
Pepels, B., Plasmeijer, R. (2005) Generating Applications from Object Role Models. In: Meersman R et al. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2005: OTM 2005 Workshops, LNCS vol 3762. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 656–665
Pepels, B., Plasmeijer, R., Proper, H. (2006) Fact-Oriented Modeling from a Programming Language Designer’s Perspective. In: Meersman R et al. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2006: OTM 2006 Workshops, LNCS vol 4278. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 1170–1180
Pierson, E., dela Cruz, N. (2005) Using Object Role Modeling for Effective In-house Decision Support Systems. In: Meersman R et al. (eds) OTM 2005 Workshops, LNCS vol 3762. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 636–645
Piprani, B. (2006) Using ORM-based Models as a Foundation for a data Quality Firewall in an Advanced Generation Data Warehouse. In: Meersman R et al. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2005: OTM 2005 Workshops, LNCS vol 3762. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 1148–1159
Proper, H.A. (1994) A Theory for Conceptual Modeling of Evolving Application Domains, PhD thesis, University of Nijmegen
Proper, H.A., Hoppenbrouwers SJB, Weide thP van der (2005) A Fact-Oriented Approach to Activity Modeling. In: Meersman R et al. (eds) OTM 2005 Workshops, LNCS vol 3762. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 666–675
Ritson, P., Halpin, T. (1993) Mapping Integrity Constraints to a Relational Schema. In: Proc. 4th Australian Conf on Inf. Systems, Brisbane, pp 381–400
Senko, M. (1975) Information systems: records, relations, sets, entities and things. Information Systems 1(1): 3–13
Shoval, P., Shreiber, N. (1993) Database reverse engineering: from the relational to the binary relational model. Data and Knowl Eng 10: 293–315
Sølvberg, A., Kung, C.H. (1993) Information Systems Engineering. Springer..
Spyns, P. (2005) Object Role Modeling for Ontology Engineering in the DOGMA Framework. In: Meersman R et al. (eds) OTM 2005 Workshops, LNCS vol 3762. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 710–719
Trog, D., Vereecken, J., Christiaens, S., De Leenheer, P., Meersman, R. (2006) T-Lex: a Role-based Ontology Engineering Tool. In: Meersman R et al. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2006: OTM 2006 Workshops, LNCS vol 4278. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 1191–1200
Verheijen, G., van Bekkum, J. (1982) NIAM: an information analysis method. In: Information systems Design Methodologies: a comparative review, Proc. IFIP WG8.1 Working Conf., Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands, North Holland Publishing.
Vermeir, D. (1983) Semantic hierarchies and abstractions in conceptual schemata. Information Systems 8(2): 117–124
Warmer, J., Kleppe, A. (2003) The Object Constraint Language, 2nd edn, Addison-Wesley
Wintraecken, J. (1990) The NIAM Information Analysis Method: Theory and Practice, Kluwer, Deventer, The Netherlands
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Halpin, T. (2007). Fact-Oriented Modeling: Past, Present and Future. In: Krogstie, J., Opdahl, A.L., Brinkkemper, S. (eds) Conceptual Modelling in Information Systems Engineering. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-72677-7_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-72677-7_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-72676-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-72677-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)