Pattern Matching in Conceptual Models – A Formal Multi-Modelling Language Approach
Delfmann, Patrick; Herwig, Sebastian; Lis, Łukas; Stein, Armin
Abstract
Recognizing patterns in conceptual models is useful for a number of
purposes, for example revealing syntactical errors, model comparison, and identification of business process improvement potentials. In this contribution, we introduce a formal approach for the specification and matching of structural patterns in
conceptual models. Unlike existing approaches, we do not focus on a certain application problem or a specific modelling language. Instead, our approach is generic
making it applicable for any pattern matching purpose and any conceptual modelling language. In order to build sets representing structural model patterns, we define formal operations based on set theory, which can be applied to arbitrary models represented by sets. Besides a conceptual and formal specification of our approach, we present a prototypical modelling tool that shows its applicability
through a particular application scenario.
Keywords
pattern matching; conceptual modeling; business process management