Applying Foundational Ontologies in Conceptual Modeling: A Case Study in a Brazilian Public Company

Information Systems (IS) should be based on consistent representations of the reality. Poor modeling results in problems throughout the IS development. Ontologies are key instruments for the improvement of conceptual modeling since they are able to provide well-defined semantics. This paper discusses the application of foundational ontologies in conceptual modeling, presenting partial results of a case study in which real UML diagrams were assessed according to ontological principles. Our findings indicate that violations of ontological restrictions of part-whole relations are somehow usual in modeling practices. In order to cope with this, we make a proposal for using partwhole relations based on ontological constraints, with the aim to seek for improvements in the practice of conceptual modeling.