Keywords: Artificial intelligence, DMN, Enterprise modeling, Explainable AI, Machine learning, Model-driven engineering
Astract: The Decision Model and Notation (DMN) modeling language allows the precise specification of business decisions and business rules. DMN is readily understandable by business users involved in decision management. However, as the models get complex, the cognitive abilities of humans threaten manual maintainability and comprehensibility. Proper design of the decision logic thus requires comprehensive automated analysis of e.g., all possible cases the decision shall cover; correlations between inputs and outputs; and the importance of inputs for deriving the output. In the paper, the authors explore the mutual benefits of combining human-driven DMN decision modeling with the computational power of Artificial Intelligence for DMN model analysis and improved comprehension. The authors propose a model-driven approach that uses DMN models to generate Machine Learning (ML) training data and show, how the trained ML models can inform human decision modelers by means of superimposing the feature importance within the original DMN models. An evaluation with multiple real DMN models from an insurance company evaluates the feasibility and the utility of the approach.

Keywords: Archi, ArchiMate, Enterprise architecture, Knowledge graph, Modeling tool
Astract: This paper presents the EAKG Toolkit that entails a new Knowledge Graph-based representation of enterprise architecture (EA) models and further enables reasoning on EA knowledge. Our developed EAKG Toolkit is unique in the sense that it i) transforms ArchiMate models into a KG representation – the Enterprise Architecture Knowledge Graph (EAKG), ii) visualizes the EAKG for interactive exploration, and iii) extends the EAKG with additional nodes and edges to visually represent detected EA smells.

Keywords:
Astract: The digital transformation is having a huge impact on many sectors of the economy. Recently, it has gained momentum in the construction industry and in tunnelling in particular. This article explains the challenges associated with the digital transformation of tunnelling and how they are being addressed by a current research project. The project is an inter-university and interdisciplinary project with the aim of advancing digitalisation in tunnelling. The article discusses the topic using various use cases that demonstrate solutions to the current challenges.

Keywords: Conceptual Modeling, Graphical Language Server Protocol, Integrated Development Environment, Language Server Protocol, Modeling tools, Software Engineering
Astract: With the introduction of the Language Server Protocol (LSP), a fundamental shift has been observed in the development of language editing support for Integrated Development Environments (IDEs), such as VS Code, the traditional Eclipse IDE, or Eclipse Theia. LSP establishes a uniform protocol that standardizes the communication between a language client (e. g., an IDE like Eclipse) and a language server (e. g., for a programming language like Java). The language client only needs to be able to interpret and understand the protocol instead of the specific programming language. Likewise, the language server can focus on language support and does not need to consider the specifics of a respective IDE. This reduces the complexity of realizing language support on different editors and IDEs and enables smooth transitions from one IDE to another. LSP is an open and community-driven protocol that has been developed within the realm of the VS Code community, initiated and driven by Microsoft. The generic concept and architectural pattern of LSP enables widespread applications that go far beyond the realization of editing support for programming languages. This paper provides an introduction to LSP, describes its evolution and core characteristics, and delineates its potential for revolutionizing not only the IDE market but also other software systems, such as modeling tools.

Keywords: Conceptual Modeling

Keywords: Graph Neural Networks, Ontology-Driven Conceptual models, Representation Learning
Astract: Conceptual Models (CMs) are essential for information systems engineering since they provide explicit and detailed representations of the subject domains at hand. Ontology-driven conceptual modeling (ODCM) languages provide primitives for articulating these domain notions based on the ontological categories put forth by upper-level (or foundational) ontologies. Many existing CMs have been created using ontologically-neutral languages (e.g., UML, ER). Connecting these models to ontological categories would provide better support for meaning negotiation, semantic interoperability, and complexity management. However, given the sheer size of this legacy base, manual stereotyping is a prohibitive task. This paper addresses this problem by proposing an approach based on Graph Neural Networks towards automating the task of stereotyping UML class diagrams with the meta-classes offered by the ODCM language OntoUML. Since these meta-classes (stereotypes) represent ontological distinctions put forth by a foundational ontology, this task is equivalent to ontological category prediction for these classes. To enable this approach, we propose a strategy for representing CM vector embeddings that preserve the model elements’ structure and ontological categorization. Finally, we present an evaluation that shows convincing learning of OntoUML model node embeddings used for OntoUML stereotype prediction.

Keywords: Model-Based Construction

Keywords: modeling tool, Visualization, modeling language, Unified modeling language

Keywords: Modeling tool, Knowledge engineering, Unified Modeling Language, Computer architecture, Model driven engineering, web modeling
Astract: The development of web-based modeling tools still poses significant challenges for developers. The Graphical Language Server Platform (GLSP) reduced some of these challenges by providing the necessary frameworks to efficiently create web modeling tools. However, more knowledge and experience are required regarding developing GLSP-based web modeling tools. This paper discusses the challenges and lessons learned after working with GLSP and realizing several GLSP-based modeling tools. More concretely, experiences, concepts, steps to be followed to develop and operate a GLSP-based web modeling tool, and the advantages and disadvantages of working with GLSP are discussed. As a proof of concept, we will report on the realization of a GLSP-based UML editor called BIGUML. Through BIGUML, we show that our procedure and the reference architecture we developed resulted in a scalable and flexible GLSP-based web modeling tool. The lessons learned, the procedural approach, the reference architecture, and the critical reflection on the challenges and opportunities of using GLSP provide valuable insights to the community and shall ease the decision of whether or not to use GLSP for future tool development projects.

Keywords: Conceptual Modeling, Analytical models, Systematics, Machine Learning algorithms, Bibliographies, Semantics, Machine Learning
Astract: Conceptual models are essential in Software and Information Systems Engineering to meet many purposes since they explicitly represent the subject domains. Machine Learning (ML) approaches have recently been used in conceptual modeling to realize, among others, intelligent modeling assistance, model transformation, and metamodel classification. These works en-code models in various ways, making the encoded models suitable for applying ML algorithms. The encodings capture the models' structure and/or semantics, making this information available to the ML model during training. Therefore, the choice of the encoding for any ML-driven task is crucial for the ML model to learn the relevant contextual information. In this paper, we report findings from a systematic literature review which yields insights into the current research in machine learning for conceptual modeling (ML4CM). The review focuses on the various encodings used in existing ML4CM solutions and provides insights into i) which are the information sources, ii) how is the conceptual model's structure and/or semantics encoded, iii) why is the model encoded, i.e., for which conceptual modeling task and, iv) which ML algorithms are applied. The results aim to structure the state of the art in encoding conceptual models for ML.