Abstract—Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a popular modeling grammar which is widely being used in the information system modeling process. Although initially UML more focused on system modeling, recent research studies have identified that UML can also be used in conceptual modeling. Therefore, this paper quantitatively assesses the appropriateness of UML for conceptual modeling using two significant factors: (1) to what extent the constructs of UML can represent the real world domain characteristics (completeness) (2) whether UML can represent the real world domain characteristics uniquely using its constructs (clarity). The results indicate that, UML is not capable of achieving a total completeness and clarity. Therefore, the paper recommends that UML needs to be refined in a way to achieve a higher completeness and clarity, to be used for conceptual modeling.
Index Terms—Completeness and clarity, conceptual modeling, ontology, unified modeling language (UML).
Prabodha Tilakaratna is with the Monash University Sunway Campus, Jalan lagoon selatan, Bandar sunway, 46150, Selangor Darul ehsan, Malaysia (e-mail: prabodha@ monash.edu).
Jayantha Rajapakse is with the Monash University Sunway Campus, Jalan lagoon selatan, Bandar sunway, 46150, Selangor Darul ehsan, Malaysia (e-mail: jayantha.rajapakse@monash.edu).
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Cite: Prabodha Tilakaratna and Jayantha Rajapakse, "Assessing the Completeness and Clarity of UML for Conceptual Modeling," International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology vol. 3, no. 6, pp. 747-753, 2012.