Skip to main content.

News

2008-06-25: Remaining slides and tutorial documents added.
Important: For the exam on June 30, 16:45 - 18:45, you must register by June 23 using this system!
2008-06-11: Slides for Unit 7 are now online.
2008-06-02: Solutions for Unit 6 are now online.
2008-05-30: Unit 6 on June 2 will be delivered as a WebCast - Click here to view the unit (Adobe Flash plug-in required).
Important: The tutorial will be a regular classroom unit (18:30 - 20:00, room 3431)!
2008-05-14: The date and classroom for the exam is now confirmed.
2008-04-14: The tutorial sheet for unit 2 is now online.
2008-04-13: Slides for Unit 2 are now online.
2008-04-09: Slides for Unit 1 are now online.
2008-04-06: Web page available.

Learning Goals

Computers are the most important tool for automating tasks in businesses. A key prequisite to using computers is to create suitable models of all relevant objects and activities in the domain of interest, e.g. data structures and processes.
In this lecture and tutorial, students will learn the theoretical foundations and practical skills of designing, maintaining and using data and process models in information systems. In the beginning, the impact of modeling on the alignment between the IT and the business sphere of entereprises is being discussed. Following that, common notations for conceptual structures and data (e.g. ERM, UML class diagrams, and ORM) and processes (e.g. Petri nets, EPCs, BPMN, and UML Activity diagrams) will be covered and their usage practiced. Lastly. the impact of reference models on the integration of systems and organizations will be discussed.
Eventually, students will develop a sound theoretical understanding of modeling data structures and processes in IT projects. In addition, they will acquire practical skills in using popular modeling languages and respective tools.

General Information


Lecture

Mondays, 16:45 - 18:15, Building 33, Classroom 3431

Tutorial and Exercises (Begin: April 14, 2008)

Mondays, 18:30 - 20:00, Building 33, Classroom 1431

Exam

Date: Monday, June 30, 2008, 16:45 - 18:45

Room: 35 / 1210A (confirmed)

Study Guide

The exam will be given in German and can be answered in German.
Relevant for the exam are the slides and contents of all lectures and tutorials.

  1. You will be asked to model structural and behavioral aspects of a given problem using popular notations, in particular ER, UML class diagrams (without methods), EPCs, flow charts, and BPMN.
  2. ORM and pseudocode is optional.
  3. You may also be asked to specify what a given model expresses.
  4. Also expect general questions related to modeling of information systems.

Course Web Page

http://www.heppnetz.de/teaching/dpm/

Literature

Core Literature:
[CiWi2005] Cimsion, Graeme C.; Witt, Graham C.: Data Modeling Essentials. 3rd. Aufl., Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Amsterdam etc. 2005.
[KrOB2007] Krogstie, John et al. (Hrsg.): Conceptual Modeling in Information Systems Engineering. Springer, Berlin etc. 2007.
[Oliv2007] Olivé, Antoni: Conceptual Modeling of Information Systems. Springer, Berlin and Heidelberg 2007.

Additional Literature:
[Diet2006] Dietz, Jan L. G.: Enterprise Ontology. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2006.
[DuAH2005] Dumas, Marlon et al. (Hrsg.): Process-Aware Information Systems. John Wileay & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey, USA 2005.
[GrRo2005] Green, Peter; Rosemann, Michael (Hrsg.): Business Systems Analysis with Ontologies. Idea Group Publishing, Hershey, PA, USA 2005.
[Guar1998] Guarino, Nicola (Hrsg.): Formal Ontology in Information Systems. IOS Press, Amsterdam 1998.
[HeLM2007] Hepp, Martin et al. (Hrsg.): Ontology Management. Semantic Web, Semantic Web Services, and Business Applications. Springer, New Work 2007.
[JaBu1996] Jablonski, Stefan; Bussler, Christoph: Workflow Management. Modeling Concepts, Architecture and Implementation. International Thomson Computer Press, London etc. 1996.
[PaSZ2006] Parent, Christine et al.: Conceptual Modeling for Traditional and Spatio-Temporal Application. Springer, Berlin and Heidelberg 2006.
[StSt2004] Staab, Steffen; Studer, Rudi (Hrsg.): Handbook on Ontologies. Springer, Berlin etc. 2004.
[Thal2000] Thalheim, Bernhard: Entity-Relationship Modeling. Springer, Berlin etc. 2000.
[GrRo2005] Green, Peter; Rosemann, Michael (Hrsg.): Business Systems Analysis with Ontologies. Idea Group Publishing, Hershey, PA, USA 2005.

Contents (Tentative)

1 Introduction
1.1 Modeling in General
1.1.1 Models and Information Systems
1.1.2 Definition
1.1.3 Models in Construction, Education, Physics, etc.
1.2 Purposes of Models
1.3 Modeling Scope: Which Objects From Which Perspective?
1.4 Origins of Models
1.5 Quality and Evaluation of Models
1.5.1 Completeness and Correctness
1.5.2 Principle of Conceptualization
1.6 Common Modeling Perspectives
1.6.1 Use Cases
1.6.2 Conceptual Structures – Conceptual Data Modeling
1.6.3 Processes and Behavior
1.6.4 Business Models
2 Modeling for Beginners: Conceptual Structures and Processes
2.1 Basics of Entity-Relationship Modeling
2.2 Flowcharts
3 Modeling Conceptual Structures
3.1 Entity-Relationship Modeling
3.2 UML Class Diagrams for Conceptual Structures
3.3 Fact-based Modeling and the Object-Role Model (ORM)
3.4 Object-Constraint Language (OCL)
4 Process Modeling: Behavioral Aspects of Information Systems
4.1 Overview
4.1.1 Procedural
4.1.2 Declarative
4.2 Event-Process Chains (EPCs)
4.3 UML Activity Diagrams
4.4 Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)
4.5 Petri-Nets
4.6 Other Formalisms and Approaches
5 ARIS – Architecture of Integrated Information Systems
6 Challenges in Information Systems Modeling
7 Reference Models and Process Libraries
7.1 Overview
7.2 Process Libraries
7.2.1 MIT Process Handbook
7.2.2 SAP Reference Models
8 Collaboration in Modeling
9 Ontologies and Ontology Engineering
10 Ontological Analysis of Models
11 Tools
12 Exercises
13 Additional Topics

Schedule and Materials

 

Unit 1: Introduction (April 7)

Slides as PDF: Unit 1 (1 slide per page) Hint: Use your printer driver options to print multiple slides on each sheet.

Relevant literature:

Unit 2: Entity-Relationship Modeling (April 14)

Slides as PDF: Unit 2 (1 slide per page)

Relevant literature:

  • to be added

Unit 3: Conceptual Modeling with UML Class Diagrams (April 21)

Slides as PDF: Unit 3 (1 slide per page)

Relevant literature:

  • to be added

Unit 4: Conceptual Modeling Project: Offerings on the Web (April 28)

See slides from previous unit

Relevant literature:

  • to be added

Unit 5: Object-Role Modeling (May 19)

Slides as PDF: Unit 5 (1 slide per page)

Relevant literature:

Unit 6: Process Modeling (June 2)

Unit 6 on June 2 will be delivered as a WebCast - Click here to view the unit (Adobe Flash plug-in required).
Slides as PDF: Unit 6 (1 slide per page)
Important: The tutorial will be a regular classroom unit (18:30 - 20:00, room 3431)!

Unit 7: Ontology Engineering (June 9)

Slides as PDF: Unit 7 (1 slide per page)

Unit 8: ARIS and IS Modeling (June 16)

Slides as PDF: Unit 8 (1 slide per page)

Unit 9: Exam Review (June 23)

Tutorial


Unit 1: No tutorial
Unit 2: Flowcharts and Basic ER Modeling Exercises
Unit 3: Advanced ER Modeling Exercises / UML Class Diagram Modeling Exercises
Unit 4: Class Project: Modeling Offers on the Web (No materials available)
Unit 5: Object-Role Modeling (ORM)
Unit 6: Process Modeling: BPMN (Solutions (pdf), Freeware Tool: BizAgi Process Modeler, Solutions in bpm-format (zip))
Unit 7: Ontology Engineering in OWL and RDF-S
Unit 8: Modeling in ARIS (See end of lecture slides)
Unit 9: Exam Review

Further materials (whiteboard drawings and examples) variousBlackboardDrawings.zip