Towards OntoUML for Software Engineering: Experimental Evaluation of Exclusivity Constraints in Relational Databases

Model-driven development approach to software engineering requires precise models defining as much of the system as possible. OntoUML is a conceptual modelling language based on Unified Foundational Ontology, which provides constructs to create ontologically well-founded and precise conceptual models. In the approach we utilize, OntoUML is used for making conceptual models of software application data and this model is then transformed into its proper realization in a relational database. In these transformations, the implicit constraints defined by various OntoUML universal types and relations are realized by database views and triggers. In this paper, we specifically discuss the realization of phase partitions of Phase types from the OntoUML model by exclusive associations and provide an experimental evaluation of this approach.