Ontologies in the Software Engineering Process

The term ontology has become popular in several fields of Informatics like Artificial Intelligence, Agent systems, Database or Web Technology. Deviating from its original philosophical meaning, in the context of Computer Sciences the term ontology stands for a formal explicit specification of a shared conceptualization. Software Engineering (SE) is a field where conceptualisation plays a major role, e.g. in the early phases of software development, in the definition, use and re-use of software components and as a basis for their integration. Thus, ontologies are likely to invade the SE field as well soon. In this contribution, conceptual modeling as practiced in SE and Information Systems projects is contrasted with the ontology approach. The corresponding life cycle models for their development are compared. Finally, some perspectives of an Ontology-based Software Engineering (OBSE) approach are outlined.