Roles: A Methodology for Representing Multifaceted Objects

Most of the efforts in the object modeling arena have concentrated on modeling object structure and behavior, with the behavior of objects being delimited by static schema definitions. Although very little has been accomplished in modeling object dynamics, it is widely accepted that the pattern of object interaction is not static, but evolves to adapt to environmental requirements and changes. In this paper we argue in favor of a model for representing object dynamics whereby objects may be represented from diverse, distinct ontological perspectives with each perspective describing different states of an object within the same application domain.