Building conceptual modeling on the foundation of ontology

Conceptual models provide a representation, often graphical, of some features of a real-world domain. Frequently, information system professionals (e.g., system analysts) prepare these models to achieve two outcomes (e.g., Fettke, 2009). First, during the system development process, conceptual models facilitate communications among stakeholders. For instance, they may be used by analysts to check their understanding of the domain to be supported by the system being developed with likely users of the system. Second, after a system has been implemented, conceptual models assist users of the system or information systems professionals who must maintain and operate the system to undertake their work. For instance, they may be employed by managers to help formulate queries to interrogate the system’s database or programmers to understand the system so they can undertake maintenance work.