Fact-based specification of a data modeling kernel of the UML superstructure

Abstract

Data schemas are an important part of the software design process. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is the lingua franca in current software engineering practice, and UML class diagrams are used for data modeling within software-engineering projects. Fact-based modeling (FBM) has many advantages over UML, for data modeling. Database engineers that have specified their data schemas in FBM, are often faced with difficulties in communicating these schemas to software engineers using UML. We wish to tackle this communication problem by eventually offering a translation from the FBM-specifications to UML class diagrams. Such a translation requires a formal meta-model description of both FBM and a data-modeling kernel of UML. This paper describes an FBM-based specification of a data-modeling kernel of the UML Superstructure. This kernel will be fact-based, with the added advantage of enabling validation of this FBM-specification. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.