Conceptual modelling based on behavioral decomposition (original) (raw)

The paper suggests an approach for conceptual modelling in which the phenomenon to be modelled is viewed as a behavioral unit and is recursively decomposed into smaller parts. The process is continued until all behavioral units are simple event types. Related entity types and association types with their attributes are also identified. The approach is illustrated using the example of the organization of a conference. The resultant hierarchical model can be used to structure the complexity of conceptual models, and provides an alternative to conceptual modelling based on user views. The top-down decomposition allows possible points of disagreement about the model to be identified early in the modelling process. Keywords Conceptual modelling, behavioral modelling, stepwise refinement, view, view integration one may lose sight of which are the relevant entity and relationship (association) types. Conceptual (information) modelling is often assumed to take place by user views (Batini et a!., 1986). Individual user views may also be complex so that effective view modelling meets with similar difficulties of complexity to those discussed above. Such an analysis also leads to A. Sutcliffe et al. (eds.