Semantics Of Business Vocabulary And Business Rules Research Articles

ID2SBVR: A Method for Extracting Business Vocabulary and Rules from an Informal Document

Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Rules (SBVR) is a standard that is applied in describing business knowledge in the form of controlled natural language. Business process designers develop SBVR from formal documents and later translate it into business process models. In many immature companies, these documents are often unavailable and could hinder resource efficiency efforts. This study introduced a novel approach called informal document to SBVR (ID2SBVR). This approach is used to extract operational rules of SBVR from informal documents. ID2SBVR mines fact type candidates using word patterns or extracting triplets (actor, action, and object) from sentences. A candidate fact type can be a complex, compound, or complex-compound sentence. ID2SBVR extracts fact types from candidate fact types and transforms them into a set of SBVR operational rules. The experimental results show that our approach can be used to generate the operational rules of SBVR from informal documents with an accuracy of 0.91. Moreover, ID2SBVR can also be used to extract fact types with an accuracy of 0.96. The unstructured data is successfully converted into semi-structured data for use in pre-processing. ID2SBVR allows the designer to automatically generate business process models from informal documents.

Transforming BPMN Processes to SBVR Process Rules with Deontic Modalities

The Object Management Group (OMG) has put considerable effort into the standardization of various business modeling aspects within the context of model-driven systems development. Indeed, the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is now arguably the most popular process modeling language. At the same time, the Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR), which is a novel and formally sound standard for the specification of virtually any kind of knowledge using controlled natural language, is also gaining its grounds. Nonetheless, the integration between these two very much related standards remains weak. In this paper, we present one such integration effort, namely an approach for the extraction of SBVR process rules from BPMN processes. To accomplish this, we utilized model-to-model transformation technology, which is one of the core features of Model-Driven Architecture. At the core of the presented solution stands a set of model transformation rules and two algorithms specifying the formation of formally defined process rules from process models. Basic implementation aspects, together with the source code of the solution, are also presented in the paper. The experimental results acquired from the automatic model transformation have shown full compliance with the benchmark results and cover the entirety of the specified flow of work defined in the experimental process models. Following this, it is safe to conclude that the set of specified transformation rules and algorithms was sufficient for the given scope of the experiment, providing a solid background for the practical application and future developments of the solution.

Modeling Business Rule Parallelism by Introducing Inclusive and Complex Gateways in Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Rules

The Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Rules (SBVR) standard was developed by the Object Management Group (OMG) for business purposes. SBVR is used for transformation of business vocabulary and business rules into business processes. Gateways are used for regulating the divergence and convergence of flow objects in the business process. The existing business rules in SVBR do not support all gateways in BPMN, whereas there are conditions where branching situations in business rules occur. This article introduces parallelism rules (OR rules) and complex rules to increase 50.6% usage of the existing AND rules and XOR rules in SBVR. The main contribution of this research is to introduce new formal model of inclusive gateway (OR) and complex gateway that allow parallelism and branching to be modeled using SBVR. Thus, this study increases coverage of the usage gateway in SBVR achieved 66.7%. The authors provide branching cases with various levels of complexity, i.e. nested conditions and non-free choice conditions, using the formal description of SBVR.

Report on the 3rd International Joint Conference on Rules and Reasoning (RuleML+RR 2019)

The annual International Joint Conference on Rules and Reasoning (RuleML+RR) is an international conference on research, applications, languages and standards for rule technologies, rule-based programming and rule-based systems including production rules systems, logic programming rule engines, as well as business-rule engines and management systems; Semantic Web rule languages and rule standards, including RuleML (e.g., Datalog+ RuleML, Reaction RuleML and LegalRuleML), SWRL, RIF, Common Logic, PRR, decision rules and Decision Model and Notation (DMN), as well as Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR); rule-based Event Processing Languages (EPLs) and technologies; and foundational research on inference rules, transformation rules, decision rules, production rules, and Event-Condition-Action (ECA) rules. In 2017, RuleML+RR joined the efforts of two wellestablished conference series: the International Web Rule Symposia (RuleML) and the Web Reasoning and Rule Systems (RR) conferences, and it is now the leading conference to build bridges between academia and industry in the field of Web rules and its applications, especially as part of the Semantic Technology stack. RuleML+RR is commonly listed together with and related to other major high-impact Artificial Intelligence conferences worldwide, starting with IJCAI in 2011 and 2016, ECAI in 2012, AAAI in 2013, ECAI in 2014, the AI Summit London in 2017, and GCAI in 2018 and 2019. The RuleML symposia and RR conferences have been held since 2002 and 2007, respectively. The RR conferences have been a forum for discussion and dissemination of new results on Web reasoning and rule systems, with an emphasis on rule-based approaches and languages. The RuleML symposia have been devoted to disseminating research, applications, languages, and standards for rule technologies, with attention to both theoretical and practical developments, to challenging new ideas, and to industrial applications. Building on the tradition of both, RuleML and RR, the joint conference series RuleML+RR aims at bridging academia and industry in the field of rules, and at fostering the cross-fertilization between the different communities focused on the research, development, and applications of rule-based systems. RuleML+RR aims at being the leading conference series for all subjects concerning theoretical advances, novel technologies, and innovative applications about knowledge representation and reasoning with rules.

A Method for Expressing Integrity Constraints in Database Conceptual Modeling

Traditional methods lack the necessary or appropriate means for expressing the integrity constraints during the database conceptual modeling stage. At most, integrity constraints are informally documented and then, coded in the application. This leads to late error detection and database inconsistencies due to the incapacity of the domain expert to validate the program code. Thus, it is necessary to express such constraints in a natural and formal way in order to close the gap between modelers and domain experts, and to support the transformation to other languages and models. As a result, we propose a controlled natural language based on Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR) to help modelers and domain experts in the process of writing and validating the constraints that cannot be represented in an Entity-Relationship schema; and the Alloy language to allow a formal specification. Inaddition, all the correspondences between the models and languages are described in order to consistently express the constraints and to lay the foundations of the automatic transformation. Finally, a case study and a usability survey show that the proposal is feasible, without abandoning a traditional and popular approach such as the Entity-Relationship model.

A Method for Expressing Integrity Constraints in Database Conceptual Modeling

Traditional methods lack the necessary or appropriate means for expressing the integrity constraints during the database conceptual modeling stage. At most, integrity constraints are informally documented and then, coded in the application. This leads to late error detection and database inconsistencies due to the incapacity of the domain expert to validate the program code. Thus, it is necessary to express such constraints in a natural and formal way in order to close the gap between modelers and domain experts, and to support the transformation to other languages and models. As a result, we propose a controlled natural language based on Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR) to help modelers and domain experts in the process of writing and validating the constraints that cannot be represented in an Entity-Relationship schema; and the Alloy language to allow a formal specification. Inaddition, all the correspondences between the models and languages are described in order to consistently express the constraints and to lay the foundations of the automatic transformation. Finally, a case study and a usability survey show that the proposal is feasible, without abandoning a traditional and popular approach such as the Entity-Relationship model.

Automated transformation of NL to OCL constraints via SBVR

This paper presents a neoteric method to automatically generate object constraint language (OCL) constraints from natural language (NL) statements. To support the software practitioners in using OCL, we present a novel method. The aim of this method is to produce a framework so that the user of unified modelling language (UML) tool can write constraints and pre/post conditions in natural language like English and the framework converts such natural language expressions to equivalent OCL statements. Here, the state of art of the two well-known technologies, namely open natural language processing (OpenNLP) and Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Rules (SBVR) are used. OpenNLP is used as a pre-processing phase to process the natural language statements. Pre-processing includes sentence splitting, tokenisation and parts of speech (POS) tagging. Then in the second phase, i.e., the transformation phase SBVR is used to automatically transform the preprocessed natural language statements to SBVR specifications. The main aim of this research is to provide automated tool support for model processing tasks in UML models via SBVR to model transform the input SBVR specifications to OCL specifications as explained in model driven architecture (MDA).

Requirements to Class Model via SBVR

A user's software requirements are represented in natural language or a speech such as English. Translating these requirements into the object-oriented models is a tough process for designers. This article proposes a neoteric approach to generate Unified Modeling Language (UML) class models instantly from software requirement specifications (SRS). Here the authors make use of the Open Natural language processing tool (OpenNLP) for lexical analysis and to generate the necessary parts of speech (POS) tags from these requirement specifications. Then, the Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Rules (SBVR) standard is used to extract the object-oriented elements from the natural language (NL) processed SRS. From this, the authors generate UML class models. The prototype tool can generate accurate models in less time. This automated system for designing object-oriented models from SRS reduces the cost and budget for both the designers and the users.

Automated Generation of OCL Constraints: NL based Approach vs Pattern Based Approach

This paper presents an approach used for automated generations of software constraints. In this model, the SBVR (Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Rules) based semi-formal representation is obtained from the syntactic and semantic analysis of a NL (Natural Language) (such as English) sentence. A SBVR representation is easy to translate to other formal languages as SBVR is based on higher-order logic like other formal languages such as OCL (Object Constraint Language). The proposed model endows with a systematic and powerful system of incorporating NL knowledge on the formal languages. A prototype is constructed in Java (an Eclipse plug-in) as a proof of the concept. The performance was tested for a few sample texts taken from existing research thesis reports and books.

Computer aided framework for designing bio-based commodity molecules with enhanced properties

We investigate the use of computer aided molecular design (CAMD) approach for enhancing the properties of existing molecules by modifying their chemical structure to match target property values. The activity of tailoring molecules requires to aggregate knowledge disseminated across the whole chemical enterprise hierarchy, from the manager level to the chemists and chemical engineers, with different backgrounds and perception of what the ideal molecule should be. So, we propose a framework that allows the search to be successful in matching all requirements while capitalizing this knowledge spread among actors with different backgrounds with the help of SBVR (Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Rules) and OCL (Object Constraint Language). In the context of using biomass as the feedstock, we discuss the coupling of CAMD tools with computer aided organic synthesis tools so as to propose enhanced bio-sourced molecules which could be synthesized with eco-friendly pathways. Finally, we evaluate the sustainability of the molecules and of the whole decision-process as well. Specific applications that concern the use of bio-sourced molecules are presented: a case of typical derivatives of chemical platform molecules issued from the itaconic acid to substitute N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone NMP or dimethyl-formamide DMF solvents and a case of derivatives of lipids to be used a biolubricants.

Using BRs Filtering Method for Transform Pre-CIM to CIM in MDA Approach

In order to facilitate communication between business experts and analysts, we adopt the pre-CIM as the most abstract level in the MDA process, integrating the SBVR (Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Rules) to express the rules in this level. Incomplete communication among these stakeholders will produce anomalies in the BRs (redundancy, conflict, circularity). This will lead to serious errors in the system and will heavily increase the final cost. We propose to incorporate a crucial step to filter and correct these BRs. Going through this step will verify their consistency and coherence before turning them into BPMN located in the CIM level. This is a great advantage in terms of saving time and reducing maintenance costs.

SBVR to OWL 2 Mappings: An Automatable and Structural-Rooted Approach


 
 
 The wide applicability of mapping business rules expressions to ontology statements have been recently recognized. Some of the most important applications are: (1) using of on- tology reasoners to prove the consistency of business domain information, (2) generation of an ontology intended to be used in the analysis stage of a software development process, and (3) the possibility of encapsulate the declarative specification of business knowledge into information software systems by means of an implemented ontology. The Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR) supports that approach by provid- ing business people with a linguistic way to semantically describe business concepts and specify business rules in an independent way of any information system design. Although previous work have presented some proposals, an exhaustive and automatable approach for them is still lacking. This work presents a broad and detailed set of transformations that allows the automatable generation of an ontology implemented in OWL 2 from the SBVR specifications of a business domain. Such transformations are rooted on the struc- tural specification of both standards and are depicted through a case study. A real case validation example was performed, approaching the feasibility of the mappings by the quality assessment of the developed ontology.
 
 

The Comprehensive Mapping of Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR) to OWL 2 Ontologies

The goal of the paper is to analyse the subset of Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR) for a comprehensive representation of ontological knowledge defined using the Web Ontology Language OWL 2. SBVR is the OMG metamodel, which separates the representation and meaning of business concepts and business rules, and makes them understandable for business experts as well as for software systems. The SBVR can act as an interface between business participants and semantic technologies, such as OWL 2 that has developed means for describing ontological data and reasoning with them. SBVR provides the richer model for knowledge representation than OWL 2. Though there are a few proposals that have shown that it is possible to transform the significant subset of SBVR concepts into OWL 2 ontology, the suitability of SBVR to represent OWL 2 ontologies has not been studied in detail. The paper addresses the mentioned issue with regards to the transformation from SBVR into OWL 2. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.itc.43.3.6651

Hybrid Enterprise Modelling: Integrating Modelling Mechanisms for Socio-Technical Systems Analysis and Design

Nowadays, Model Driven Development (MDD) is a powerful technique for modelling complex systems and also for aligning business and information technology (IT), giving designers the ability to execute business models as they are intended to be run and behaved in the business environment. The Object Management Group (OMG) adopted many business standards into the Model Driven Architecture (MDA) environment e.g. Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR), the Business Motivation Model (BMM), Business Process Modelling and Notation (BPMN) and Organisational Structure Model (OSM). These can work together to model different aspects of the enterprise at the business level. However, these models lack reasoning and dynamic simulation: there is no significant way to simulate discrete and continuous time system behaviour or to build arguments for reasoning about the design options within the OMG specifications. In this paper we propose an approach to overcoming this problem, by integrating a set of modelling tools into one single platform, taking advantage of meta-modelling techniques to integrate new tools with the OMG specifications in a model driven environment. The prospective framework should be able to tackle advanced analysis and design problems by intertwining design, reasoning and simulation to achieve a higher level of design maturity through implementing the desired scenario.

An efficient language pipeline for flexible rule-based context representation

Rule-based context-aware systems are traditionally based on statically defined operational contexts. Their deployment within Web-based application frameworks featuring frequent context updates and distributed evaluation requires flexible, interoperable context representation. In this paper we present C-SBVR, an XML-based representation of contexts as rule sets in line with SBVR (Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Rules) specifications, and show how this format is suitable for being efficiently handled in a pipeline for context information processing on Java-based rule evaluation engines.

Translating natural language constraints to OCL

Object Constraint Language (OCL) is the only available language to annotate the Unified Modeling Language (UML) based conceptual schema (CS) of a software application. In practice, the constraints are captured in a natural language (NL) such as English and then an OCL expert manually transforms the NL expressions to OCL syntax. However, it is a common knowledge that OCL is difficult to write specifically for the novel users with little or no prior knowledge of OCL. In recent times, model transformation technology has made transformation of one language to another simpler and easier. In this paper we present a novel approach to automatically transform NL specification of software constraints to OCL constraints. In NL to OCL transformation, Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Rules (SBVR) standard is used as an intermediate representation due to a couple of reasons: first of all, SBVR is based on higher order logic that simplifies the transformation of SBVR to other formal languages such as OCL. Moreover, SBVR used syntax of natural language and thus is close to human beings. The presented NL to OCL transformation via SBVR will not only simplify the process of generating OCL constraints but also generate accurate models in less time.

A standard language for service delivery: Enabling understanding among stakeholders

In Integrated Service Delivery (ISD), multiple service providers have to collaborate in order to serve as a one-stop shop for their clients. Although technical standards have been met, collaboration is difficult. Service providers do not know what kind of information other providers need, are not aware of each other's processes or simply do not understand each other due to the use of ambiguous terms. In this paper, foundations for a language are developed to specify the requirements for ISD and enable the unambiguous understanding of these requirements. A combination of the standards Object-Role Modeling (ORM) and Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR) is used to ensure human readability and to have the full expressive power of formal languages. Composed expressions are developed to express logical, temporal, and geographical requirements. This enables service providers to understand how, when, and where services need to be integrated. By utilizing these foundations to generate a standard language for ISD, service providers can collaborate and they can understand complex client requirements which lead to improved ISD.

Enterprise Knowledge Based Software Requirements Elicitation

One of the ways to capture enterprise knowledge is Enterprise Architecture (EA). EA allows indentifying the majority of software "to-be" requirements for information systems (IS) engineering. However, the transition between enterprise architecture model and IT resource design still lacks a clear approach and tools for implementing it in practice. The paper presents an approach for the enterprise knowledge based software requirements elicitation. The suggested approach is based on the Unified profile for Ministry of Defence Architecture Framework (MODAF) and Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF), System Modeling Language (SysML) requirements model, and a Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR) standard as a formal background for elicited software requirements. A real world example is presented to validate the suitability of the approach.http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.itc.40.3.626

UMLtoSBVR: An SBVR-based tool to validate UML conceptual schemas

The UMLtoSBVR tool facilitates the interaction between designers and business people in order to refine and validate the information modeled in a UML conceptual schema (CS) to make sure that the CS is correct before starting the implementation phase. To this end, the tool is able to paraphrase the CS, i.e. to describe the CS elements using natural language expressions that can be understood by the business people lacking of the technical background to directly understand the UML notation. As an intermediate step, the tool transforms the UML CS into a SBVR (Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules) specification. The SBVR standard facilitates the expression of the CS in different natural language styles (as Structured English or Rule Speak).

Modeling languages for business processes and business rules: A representational analysis

Process modeling and rule modeling languages are both used to document organizational policies and procedures. To date, their synergies and overlap are under-researched. Understanding the relationship between the two modeling types would allow organizations to maximize synergies, avoid content duplication, and thus reduce their overall modeling effort. In this paper, we use the Bunge–Wand–Weber (BWW) representation theory to compare the representation capabilities of process and rule modeling languages. We perform a representational analysis of four rule modeling specifications: The Simple Rule Markup Language (SRML), the Semantic Web Rules Language (SWRL), the Production Rule Representation (PRR), and the Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR) specification. We compare their BWW representation capabilities with those of four popular conceptual process modeling languages. In our analysis, we focus on the aspects of maximum ontological completeness and minimum ontological overlap. The outcome of this study shows that no single language is internally complete with respect to the BWW representation model. We also show that a combination of two languages, in particular SRML and BPMN, appears to be better suited for combined process and rule modeling than any of these modeling languages used independently.