AN EXECUTABLE VISUAL FORMALISM FOR OBJECT-ORIENTED CONCEPTUAL MODELING

Conceptual modeling aims at establishing the conceptual knowledge nece ssary for proper communication between a development team and users. T his article presents an executable visual formalism for object-oriente d modeling of information systems. This formalism is an integration of the entity-relationship approach, Petri nets, relational calculus, an d time temporal logic. It supports integrated and encapsulated modelin g of the structural and behavioral aspects of objects, and object evol ution. The formalism has textual and graphical representations, allows formal analysis of model properties, and supports rapid prototyping. An environment and a methodology for conceptual modeling also are desc ribed.