CAM

Abstract

The problem of identifying relevant classes (entities) and associations (relationships) is a fundamental problem for conceptual modeling. In a previous work the authors introduced a conceptual modeling methodology named OMP (Ontology-based Modeling Patterns), which is based on the analysis of class categories representing entity types that are organized in the form of ontology. Since then the authors have explored a way to improve the methodology. As a result, in this paper the authors introduce a new conceptual modeling framework, entitled CAM (Class/Association-analysis-based Modeling), which is based on the analysis and classification of association types as well as entity types. The main objective of CAM is to serve as a tool to facilitate teaching the fundamentals of conceptual modeling to students in a systematic way, by providing extensible and adaptable entity/association classificatory systems that can be directly used in the problem-solving process. In this paper the authors present the CAM framework and illustrate its application.