Ontologies of engineering knowledge: general structure and the case of Software Engineering

Miguel-Angel Sicilia; Elena García-Barriocanal; Salvador Sánchez-Alonso; Daniel Rodríguez-García; Miguel-Angel Sicilia; Elena García-Barriocanal; Salvador Sánchez-Alonso; Daniel Rodríguez-García

doi:10.1017/S0269888909990087

Abstract: Engineering knowledge is a specific kind of knowledge that is oriented to the production of particular classes of artifacts, is typically related to disciplined design methods, and takes place in tool-intensive contexts. As a consequence, representing engineering knowledge requires the elaboration of complex models that combine functional and structural representations of the resulting artifacts with process and methodological knowledge. The different categories used in the engineering domain vary in their status and in the way they should be manipulated when building applications that support engineering processes. These categories include artifacts, activities, methods and models. This paper surveys existing models of engineering knowledge and discusses an upper ontology that abstracts the categories that crosscut different engineering domains. Such an upper model can be reused for particular engineering disciplines. The process of creating such elaborations is reported on the particular case study of Software Engineering as a concrete application example.

Other Articles By Authors

Ontologies of engineering knowledge: general structure and the case of Software Engineering

Computer Science Department

Published online: 01 September 2009

Abstract: Abstract: Engineering knowledge is a specific kind of knowledge that is oriented to the production of particular classes of artifacts, is typically related to disciplined design methods, and takes place in tool-intensive contexts. As a consequence, representing engineering knowledge requires the elaboration of complex models that combine functional and structural representations of the resulting artifacts with process and methodological knowledge. The different categories used in the engineering domain vary in their status and in the way they should be manipulated when building applications that support engineering processes. These categories include artifacts, activities, methods and models. This paper surveys existing models of engineering knowledge and discusses an upper ontology that abstracts the categories that crosscut different engineering domains. Such an upper model can be reused for particular engineering disciplines. The process of creating such elaborations is reported on the particular case study of Software Engineering as a concrete application example.

HTML

Acknowledgments

This work has been partially supported by project SERE-OC (Resource selection in e-learning based on competency ontologies), code CCG06-UAH/TIC-0606 funded by the University of Alcala´ and the CAM (Comunidad Auto´noma de Madrid).

http://www.opencyc.org/

http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-features/

http://www.w3.org/Submission/SWRL/

http://www.swebok.org/

The resulting OWL + SWRL files can be found at http://www.cc.uah.es/ie/ont/engineering

ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) certifies college and university programs in engineering and other disciplines (http://www.abet.org/).

Terms and predicates in the ontology are typed in Courier font.

http://www.pmi.org/

A complete example can be found in the Web of the ontology

http://www.uml.org/

http://www.objectmentor.com/resources/articles/stability.pdf

http://uml.netbeans.org/

Rights and permissions

References (39)

About this article

Cite this article

Miguel-Angel Sicilia, Elena García-Barriocanal, Salvador Sánchez-Alonso, Daniel Rodríguez-García. 2009. Ontologies of engineering knowledge: general structure and the case of Software Engineering. The Knowledge Engineering Review. 24:87 doi: 10.1017/S0269888909990087

Miguel-Angel Sicilia, Elena García-Barriocanal, Salvador Sánchez-Alonso, Daniel Rodríguez-García. 2009. Ontologies of engineering knowledge: general structure and the case of Software Engineering. The Knowledge Engineering Review. 24:87 doi: 10.1017/S0269888909990087

{{lists.name}}

Ontologies of engineering knowledge: general structure and the case of Software Engineering

Abstract

Rights and permissions

References

About this article

Cite this article

Article Metrics

Access History

Other Articles By Authors