Institution Aware Conceptual Modelling

Conceptual modelling for information systems design is to a large extent about describing and prescribing the actions and interactions of agents in organizations. Thus, rules, regulations, organizational roles and other institutional aspects become key notions for conceptual modelling. While modellers may intuitively take these notions into account when creating conceptual models, it would be valuable also to take a more systematic and methodical approach to institutional aspects in the modelling activity. As a first step to such a method, this paper proposes a set of guidelines that support a modeller in identifying classes in a domain model starting from an analysis of the institutional aspects of the domain. The guidelines build on an institutional ontology that describes key notions of institutions, including actors, rules, rights, contracts, and processes.