The Minimal Ontology Principle - Philosophical Foundations of OPM-based Modelling and Simulation

James Brucato, Dov Dori

2014

Abstract

Traditionally, Software Engineering (SWE) and Systems Engineering (SE) were almost different disciplines with little overlap and with a different set of approaches and concepts. Yet, both SWE and SE reflect two sides of the same coin: both revolve around development and lifecycle support of systems. While SWE focuses on software-intensive systems, SE has focused on systems in general. However, most systems nowadays not only combine hardware and software, ever more intertwined and increasingly interdependent, they also comprise humans and organizations as stakeholders. This work aims to underline the importance of the holism as highly effective approach to both SWE and SE as it is the result of a huge and very representative set of philosophical investigations, partially illustrated in this work, assuming that the historical distinction between SWE and SE is becoming ever less relevant and that it is high time they be treated as one overarching discipline provided with a minimal ontology in order to facilitate the conceptual modelling process and improve models understandability. We propose the Object Process Methodology (OPM), together with its holistic approach to systems modelling and simulation, as main building block of the bridge between SWE and SE disciplines with respect the issues above.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Brucato J. and Dori D. (2014). The Minimal Ontology Principle - Philosophical Foundations of OPM-based Modelling and Simulation . In Proceedings of the International Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Ontology Development - Volume 1: KEOD, (IC3K 2014) ISBN 978-989-758-049-9, pages 405-409. DOI: 10.5220/0005140804050409

in Bibtex Style

@conference{keod14,
author={James Brucato and Dov Dori},
title={The Minimal Ontology Principle - Philosophical Foundations of OPM-based Modelling and Simulation},
booktitle={Proceedings of the International Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Ontology Development - Volume 1: KEOD, (IC3K 2014)},
year={2014},
pages={405-409},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0005140804050409},
isbn={978-989-758-049-9},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the International Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Ontology Development - Volume 1: KEOD, (IC3K 2014)
TI - The Minimal Ontology Principle - Philosophical Foundations of OPM-based Modelling and Simulation
SN - 978-989-758-049-9
AU - Brucato J.
AU - Dori D.
PY - 2014
SP - 405
EP - 409
DO - 10.5220/0005140804050409