Authors:
Christian Lettner
1
;
Christian Hawel
1
;
Bernhard Freudenthaler
1
and
Ewald Draxler
2
Affiliations:
1
Software Competence Center Hagenberg GmbH (SCCH), Austria
;
2
voestalpine Stahl GmbH, Austria
Keyword(s):
Architecture, Conceptual Model, Integration, Metadata, Ontology, Semantic Technology, Topic Maps.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Applications and Case-studies
;
Artificial Intelligence
;
Domain Analysis and Modeling
;
Knowledge Engineering and Ontology Development
;
Knowledge-Based Systems
;
MetaModeling
;
Models
;
Paradigm Trends
;
Reflection and Metadata Approaches
;
Software Engineering
;
Symbolic Systems
Abstract:
Typical organizations operate several systems to perform their business tasks. To support the decision making process, the data processed by these systems must be integrated into a global, consolidated view. As each system supports a different business process and therefore operates in a different context, the data stored in these systems can have slightly different semantics. This semantic gap is one of the main reasons that data integration is a difficult task. The same challenges also apply to technical and business metadata. To resolve this semantic gap, conceptual models are proposed as the foundation for metadata integration. They are used to identify, interconnect and evaluate the similarity of concepts and to provide a vital source for architectural analysis. The conceptual model should provide a sound understanding of the domain and act as a general entry point for users who want to learn more about the system architecture.