Reasoning with Behavioural Knowledge in Application Domain Models

This paper describes an analyst-oriented approach to conceptual knowledge representation and reasoning based on description logics. The approach is introduced to model and analyse the static part of behavioural concepts used in application domains. Behaviours are captured in a parametric way with respect to the description logic which corresponds to the structural modelling language. Structural concepts are classified according to the usual ISA hierarchy, while behaviours are organised into a hierarchy based on countervariance. Reasoning about the domain model is performed in terms of subsumption and consistency in the adopted description logic, and complexity results carry over. The proposed approach is used to formalise and reason on process schemes introduced in the engineering of computer-based and information systems, as well as in enterprise modelling.