Extracting ontological information from software design data

• US 8,336,024 B2
• Filed: 11/08/2007
• Issued: 12/18/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kannan, Kalapriya, Srivastava, Biplav, Agarwal, Vikas, Mittal, Sumit, Chafle, Girish Bhimrao
• Primary Examiner(s): Kendall, Chuck
• Application Number:
  US11/937,041
• Publication Number:
  US 20090125872A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,867 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/107
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/367 Ontology
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques

Abstract

A method, computer System and computer program product for generating ontological information from design data are disclosed. The design data has a plurality of classes, the classes having at least one association with another class. The design data is processed on the basis of rules to identify environmental artifacts. The design data is processed on the basis of rules to identify implementation artifacts. All classes that are implementation artifacts are eliminated from the design data. New associations for non-eliminated design data that have broken class associations as a result of the elimination are established. The design data remaining following the elimination is processed to preserve environmental artifact relationships between the retained classes to generate an ontology.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for generating ontological information from design data, said design data having a plurality of classes, said classes having at least one association with another class, said method comprising:

processing, by a computer, said design data on the basis of rules to identify environmental artifacts;

processing, by said computer, said design data on the basis of rules to identify implementation artifacts;

eliminating, by said computer, from said design data all classes that are implementation artifacts;

establishing, by said computer, new associations for non-eliminated design data that have broken class associations as a result of said elimination; and

processing, by said computer, said design data remaining following said elimination to preserve environmental artifact relationships between said retained classes to generate an ontology.

2. The method of claim 1, said design data comprising UML design data, and said design data having:

a plurality of classes, each said class having at least one association with another class, and each said association having at least one attribute; and

a sequence of execution of said classes.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

processing said plurality of classes to identify classes having an implementation artifact, and eliminating such classes from said plurality of classes;

creating a new association for non-eliminated classes having a dangling association as a result of the elimination from said plurality of classes; and

processing said newly associated design data with said sequence of execution to preserve environmental relationships.

4. The method of claim 3, said implementation artifact being one of a controller class and a boundary class.

5. The method of claim 3, said processing to preserve environmental relationships including at least one of:

maintaining relationships between a class with said ancestors and descendants;

maintaining aggregation and composition relationships between a class having a PART-OF relationship with another class; and

maintaining directional associations between a class having a USING relationship with another class.

6. The method of claim 3, said new associations being created by identifying propagating edges of disconnected nodes in a class, and forming a new edge having the attributes of role, cardinality, and direction.

7. The method of claim 3, further comprising merging at least two sets of said ontological information subject to an ontology requirement.

8. A computer system for generating ontological information from design data, said design data having a plurality of classes, said classes having at least one association with another class, said system comprising:

a memory that stores; and

a processor that

processes said design data on the basis of rules to identify environmental artifacts;

processes said design data on the basis of rules to identify implementation artifacts;

eliminates from said design data all classes that are implementation artifacts;

establishes new associations for non-eliminated design data that have broken class associations as a result of said elimination; and

processes said design data remaining following said elimination to preserve environmental artifact relationships between said retained classes to generate an ontology.

9. The system of claim 8, said design data for generating ontological information including UML design data, said design data having:

a plurality of classes, each said class having at least one association with another class, and each said association having at least one attribute; and

a sequence of execution of said classes.

10. The system of claim 9, said processor further:

processing said class data to identify classes having an implementation artifact, and eliminating such classes from said class data;

creating a new association for non-eliminated classes having a dangling association as a result of the elimination of class data; and

processing said newly associated design data with said sequence of execution data to preserve environmental relationships.

11. The system of claim 10, said implementation artifacts being controller and boundary class data.

12. The system of claim 10, said process to preserve environmental relationships including at least one of:

maintaining relationships between a class with said ancestors and descendants;

maintaining aggregation and composition relationships between a class having a PART-OF relationship with another class; and

maintaining directional associations between a class having a USING relationship with another class.

13. The system of claim 10, said new associations being created by identifying propagating edges of disconnected nodes in a class, and forming a new edge having the attributes of role, cardinality, and direction.

14. The system of claim 10, further comprising merging at least two sets of said ontological information subject to an ontology requirement.

15. A computer-implemented method for generating new design data based on ontological information from previous design data, said previous design data having a plurality of classes, said classes having at least one association with another class, said method comprising:

processing, by a computer, said previous design data on the basis of rules to identify environmental artifacts;

processing, by said computer, said previous design data on the basis of rules to identify classes having an implementation artifact;

eliminating, by said computer, from said previous design data all classes having an implementation artifact;

establishing, by said computer, new associations for non-eliminated design data that have broken class associations as a result of said elimination;

processing, by said computer, said previous design data remaining following said elimination to preserve environmental artifact relationships between said retained classes to generate an ontology;

inputting, by said computer, new design requirements data;

identifying, by said computer, environmental artifacts in new design requirements data;

applying, by said computer, said ontology to said environmental artifacts; and

maintaining and propagating, by said computer, relationships between environmental artifacts after elimination of the implementation artifact to generate a reduce ontology to serve as a template for new design data.

16. A computer-implemented method for generating new design data for a new software project based on ontological information from previous design data, said previous design data having a plurality of classes, said classes having at least one association with another class, said method comprising:

inputting, by a computer, a sequence diagram for said new project;

eliminating, by said computer, from said existing ontology environmental classes which are not part of said sequence diagram to generate a reduced ontology;

establishing, by said computer, new relationships for non-eliminated entities in said reduced ontology that have broken relationships as a result of said elimination; and

processing said reduced, by said computer, ontology following said elimination to preserve environmental artifact relationships between said retained classes to generate a new ontology specific to said new project.