arXiv subjects

Sabah Al-Fedaghi

Publications and source records attributed to Sabah Al-Fedaghi.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Textual-Based vs. Thinging Machines Conceptual Modeling

Software engineers typically interpret the domain description in natural language and translate it into a conceptual model. Three approaches are used in this domain modeling: textual languages, diagrammatic languages, and a mixed based of text and diagrams. According to some researchers, relying on a diagrammatic notation levies certain burdens for designing large models because visual languages are intended to depict everything diagrammatically during a development process but fail to do so for a lack of developer efficiency. It is claimed that textual formats enable easier manipulation in editors and tools and facilitate the integration of ontologies in software systems. In this paper, we explore the problem of the relationship between textual format and diagramming in conceptual modeling. The main focus is modeling based on the so-called thinging machine (TM). Several examples are developed in detail to contrast side-by-side targeted domains represented in textual description and TM modeling. A TM model is defined as a thimac (thing/machine) with a time feature that forms dynamic events over static thimacs utilizing five generic actions: create, process, release, transfer, and receive. This provides a conceptual foundation that can be simplified further by eliminating the actions of release, transfer, and receive. A multilevel reduction in the TM diagram s complexity can also be achieved by assuming diagrammatic notations represent the actions of creation and processing. We envision that special tools will help improve developer efficiency. The study s results of contrasting textual and mix-based descriptions vs. TM modeling justify our claim that TM modeling is a more appropriate methodology than other diagrammatic schemes (e.g., UML classes) examined in this paper.

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arXiv2025

Carving Nature/Conceptual Models at Joints Using Thinging Machines

To handle the complexity of our world, the carving metaphor has been used to build a conceptual system of reality. In such an endeavor, we can choose various joints to carve at; that is, we can conceptualize various aspects of reality. Conceptual modeling concerns carving (e.g., categorization) and specifying a conceptual picture of a subject domain. This paper concerns with applying the notion of carving to conceptual models. Specifically, it concerns modeling based on the so-called thinging machine (TM). The central problem is how to carve events when building a TM model. In TMs, an event is defined as a thimac (thing/machine) with a time feature that infuses dynamism into the static thimac, called a region. A region is a diagrammatic description based on five generic actions: create, process, release, transfer, and receive. The paper contains new material about TM modeling and generalization and focuses on the carving problem to include structural carving and dynamic events. The study s results provide a foundation for establishing a new type of reality carving based on the TM model diagrams.

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arXiv2025

Conceptual Entity-Relationship Model: Underneath the Simplicity and Staticity

This paper deals with the issue of conceptual models role in capturing semantics and aligning them to serve the remaining development phases of systems design. Specifically, the entity-relationship (ER) model is selected as an example of conceptual representation that serves this purpose in building relational database systems. It is claimed that ER diagrams provide a solid basis for subsequent technical implementation. The ER model appeal relies on its simplicity and its benefit in clarifying the requirements for databases. Nevertheless, some researchers have observed that this reduction of complexity is accompanied by oversimplification and overlooking dynamism. Accordingly, complaints have risen about the lack of direct compatibility between ER modeling and relational model. This paper is an attempt to explore what is beneath this static ER simplicity and its role as a base for subsequent technical implementation. In this undertaking, we use thinging machines (TMs), where modeling is constructed upon a single notion thimac (thing/machine). Thimac constituents are formed from the makeup of five actions, create, process, release, transfer, and receive that inject dynamism alongside with structure. The ER entities, attributes, and relationship are modeled as thimacs. Accordingly, in this paper, ER examples are remodeled in TM while identifying TM portions that correspond to ER components. The resulting TM model insets actions into entities, attributes and relationships. In this case, relationships are the products of creating linking thimacs plus the logic of constructing them. Based on such static/dynamic TM representation, the modeler can produce any level of simplification, including the original ER model. In conclusion, results indicated that the TM models facilitate multilevel simplicity and viable direct compatibility with the relational database model.

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arXiv2025

Thinging Machines for Requirements Engineering: Superseding Flowchart-Based Modeling

This paper directs attention to conceptual modeling approaches that integrate advancements and innovations in requirements engineering. In some current (2024) works, it is claimed that present elicitation of requirements models focus on collecting information using natural language, which yields ambiguous specifications. It is proposed that a solution to this problem involves using complexity theory, transdisciplinarity, multidimensionality and knowledge management. Examples are used to demonstrate how such an approach helps solve the problem of quality and reliability in requirements engineering. The modeling method includes flowchart-like diagrams that show the relationships among system components and values in various modes of operation as well as path graphs that represent the system behavior. This paper focuses on the diagrammatic techniques in such approaches, with special attention directed to flowcharting (e.g., UML activity diagrams, business process model and notation (BPMN) business process diagrams). We claim that diagramming methods based on flowcharts is an outdated technique, and we promote an alternative diagrammatic modeling methodology based on thinging machines (TMs). TMs involve a high-level diagrammatic representation of a real-world system that integrates various component specifications to be refined into a more concrete executable form. TM modeling is a valuable tool to integrate requirements elicitation and address present challenges comprehensively. To demonstrate that, case studies are re-modeled using TMs. A TM model involves static, dynamic diagrams and event chronology charts. This study contrasts the flowchart-based and the TM approaches. The results point to the benefits of adopting the TM diagramming method.

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arXiv2024

Conceptual Modeling and Classification of Events

This paper is a sequel to an evolving research project on a diagrammatic methodology called thinging machine (TM). Initially, it was proposed as a base for conceptual modelling (e.g., conceptual UML) in areas such as requirement engineering. Conceptual modelling involves a high-level representation of a real-world system that integrates various components to refine it into a more concrete (computer) executable form. The TM project has progressed into a more comprehensive approach by applying it in several research areas and expanding its theoretical and ontological foundation. Accordingly, the first part of the paper involves enhancing some TM aspects related to structuring events in existence, such as absent events. The second part of the paper focuses on how to classify events and the kinds of relationships that can be recognized among events. The notion of events has occupied a central role in modelling. It influences computer science and such diverse disciplines as linguistics, probability theory, artificial intelligence, physics, philosophy and history. In TM, an event is defined as the so-called thimac (thing/machine) with a time breath that infuses dynamism into the static description of the thimac called a region. A region is a diagrammatic specification based on five generic actions: create, process, release, transfer and receive. The results of this research provide (a) an enrichment of conceptual modelling, especially concerning varieties of existence, e.g., absent events of negative propositions, and (b) a proposal that instead of semantic categorizations of events, it is possible to develop a new type of classification based on graphs grounded on the TM model diagrams.

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arXiv2024

Toward Conceptual Modeling for Propositional Logic: Propositions as Events

Applying logic in the area of conceptual modeling has been investigated widely, yet there has been limited uptake of logic-based conceptual modeling in industry. According to some researchers, another formalization of such tools as EER or UML class diagrams in logic may only marginally contribute to the body of knowledge. This paper reflects on applying propositional logic language to a high-level diagrammatic representation called the thinging machines (TM) model. We explore the relationship between conceptual modeling and logic, including such issues as: What logical constructs model? How does truth fit into the picture produced in conceptual modeling as a representation of some piece of the world it is about? The ultimate research objective is a quest for a thorough semantic alignment of TM modeling and propositional logic into a single structure. Examples that involve the application of propositional logic in certain areas of reality are TM remodeled, where propositions are viewed as TM regions or events. As it turned out, TM seems to shed light on the semantics of propositions. In such a conceptual framework, logical truth is a matter of how things are in actuality and how falsehood is in subsistence. The results show that propositional logic enriches the rigorousness of conceptual descriptions and that the TM semantic apparatus complements propositional logic by providing a background to the given set of propositions. Semantics matters are applied to propositional constructs such as negative propositions, disjunctions, and conjunctions with negative terms.

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arXiv2024

Preconceptual Modeling in Software Engineering: Metaphysics of Diagrammatic Representations

According to many researchers, conceptual model (CM) development is a hard task, and system requirements are difficult to collect, causing many miscommunication problems. CMs require more than modeling ability alone - they first require an understanding of the targeted domain that the model attempts to represent. Accordingly, a preconceptual modeling (pre-CM) stage is intended to address ontological issues before typical CM development is initiated. It involves defining a portion of reality when entities and processes are differentiated and integrated as unified wholes. This pre-CM phase forms the focus of research in this paper. The purpose is not show how to model; rather, it is to demonstrate how to establish a metaphysical basis of the involved portion of reality. To demonstrate such a venture, we employ the so-called thinging machine (TM) modeling that has been proposed as a high-level CM. A TM model integrates staticity and dynamism grounded in a fundamental construct called a thimac (things/machine). It involves two modes of reality, existence (events) and subsistence (regions - roughly, specifications of things and processes). Currently, the dominant approach in CM has evolved to limit its scope of application to develop ontological categorization (types of things). In the TM approach, pre-CM metaphysics is viewed as a part and parcel of CM itself. The general research problem is how to map TM constructs to what is out there in the targeted domain. Discussions involve the nature of thimacs (things and processes) and subsistence and existence as they are superimposed over each other in reality. Specifically, we make two claims, (a) the perceptibility of regions as a phenomenon and (b) the distinctiveness of existence as a construct for events. The results contribute to further the understanding of TM modeling in addition to introducing some metaphysical insights.

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arXiv2024

Exploring Conceptual Modeling Metaphysics: Existence Containers, Leibniz's Monads and Avicenna's Essence

Requirement specifications in software engineering involve developing a conceptual model of a target domain. The model is based on ontological exploration of things in reality. Many things in such a process closely tie to problems in metaphysics, the field of inquiry of what reality fundamentally is. According to some researchers, metaphysicians are trying to develop an account of the world that properly conceptualizes the way it is, and software design is similar. Notions such as classes, object orientation, properties, instantiation, algorithms, etc. are metaphysical concepts developed many years ago. Exploring the metaphysics of such notions aims to establish quality assurance though some objective foundation not subject to misapprehensions and conventions. Much metaphysical work might best be understood as a model-building process. Here, a model is viewed as a hypothetical structure that we describe and investigate to understand more complex, real-world systems. The purpose of this paper is to enhance understanding of the metaphysical origins of conceptual modeling as exemplified by a specific proposed high-level model called thinging machines (TMs). The focus is on thimacs (things/machine) as a single category of TM modeling in the context of a two-phase world of staticity and dynamics. The general idea of this reality has been inspired by Deleuze s the virtual and related to the classical notions of Leibniz's monads and Avicenna's essence. The analysis of TMs leads to several interesting results about a thimac s nature at the static and existence levels.

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arXiv2023

Diagrammatic Modelling of Causality and Causal Relations

It has been stated that the notion of cause and effect is one object of study that sciences and engineering revolve around. Lately, in software engineering, diagrammatic causal inference methods (e.g., Pearl s model) have gained popularity (e.g., analyzing causes and effects of change in software requirement development). This paper concerns diagrammatical (graphic) models of causal relationships. Specifically, we experiment with using the conceptual language of thinging machines (TMs) as a tool in this context. This would benefit works on causal relationships in requirements engineering, enhance our understanding of the TM modeling, and contribute to the study of the philosophical notion of causality. To specify the causality in a system s description is to constrain the system s behavior and thus exclude some possible chronologies of events. The notion of causality has been studied based on tools to express causal questions in diagrammatic and algebraic forms. Causal models deploy diagrammatic models, structural equations, and counterfactual and interventional logic. Diagrammatic models serve as a language for representing what we know about the world. The research methodology in the paper focuses on converting causal graphs into TM models and contrasts the two types of representation. The results show that the TM depiction of causality is more complete and therefore can provide a foundation for causal graphs.

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arXiv2023

Ontology for Conceptual Modeling: Reality of What Thinging Machines Talk About, e.g., Information

In conceptual modeling (CM) as a subdiscipline of software engineering, current proposed ontologies (categorical analysis of entities) are typically established through whole adoption of philosophical theories (e.g. Bunge s). In this paper, we pursue an interdisciplinary research approach to develop a diagrammatic-based ontological foundation for CM using philosophical ontology as a secondary source. It is an endeavor to escape an offshore procurement of ontology from philosophy and implant it in CM. In such an effort, the CM diagrammatic language plays an important role in contrast to dogmatic philosophical languages obsession with abstract entities. Specifically, this paper is about developing a descriptive (in contrast to formal) ontology that a modeler accepts as a supplementary account of reality when using thinging machines (TMs; i.e. a reality that uncovers the ontology of things that TM modeling discusses or talks about, akin to the ontology of natural language). The aim here is aligned toward developing CM notions and processes that are firm enough. Classical analysis of being per se (e.g. identity, substance) is de-emphasized in this work; nevertheless, philosophical concepts form an acknowledged authority to compare to. As a case study, such a methodology is applied to the notion of information. This application would enhance understanding of the TM methodology and clarify some of the issues that shed light on the question of the nature of information as an important concept in software engineering. Information is defined as about events; that is, it is about existing things. It is viewed as having a subsisting nature that exists only through being carried on by other things. The results seem to indicate a promising approach to define information and understand its nature.

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arXiv2023

In Pursuit of Unification of Conceptual Models: Sets as Machines

Conceptual models as representations of real-world systems are based on diverse techniques in various disciplines but lack a framework that provides multidisciplinary ontological understanding of real-world phenomena. Concurrently, systems complexity has intensified, leading to a rise in developing models using different formalisms and diverse representations even within a single domain. Conceptual models have become larger; languages tend to acquire more features, and it is not unusual to use different modeling languages for different components. This diversity has caused problems with consistency between models and incompatibly with designed systems. Two main solutions have been adopted over the last few years: (1) A currently dominant technology-based solution tries to harmonize or unify models, e.g., unifies EER and UML. This solution would solidify modeling achievements, reaping benefits from huge investments over the last thirty years. (2) A less prevalent solution is to pursuit deeper roots that reveal unifying modeling principles and apparatuses. An example of the second method is a category theory-based approach that utilizes the strengths of the graph and set theory, along with other topological tools. This manuscript is a sequel in a research venture that belongs to the second approach and uses a model called thinging machines (TMs) founded on Stoic ontology and Lupascian logic. TM modeling contests the thesis that there is no universal approach that covers all aspects of an application, and the paper demonstrates that pursuing such universality is anything but a dead-end method. This paper continues in this direction, with emphasis on TM foundation (e.g., existence and subsistence of things) and exemplifies this pursuit by proposing an alternative representation of set theory.

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arXiv2023

Redrafting Requirements Modeling Using a Single Multilevel Diagram

The complexity of software-based systems has increased significantly, especially with regards to capturing requirements along with dependencies among requirements. A conceptual model is a way of thinking about and making sense of the real world s complexities. In this paper, we focused on two approaches in this context: (a) multiple models applied to the same system with simultaneous usage of dissimilar notations vs. (b) a single model that utilizes a single framework of notations. In the first approach, inconsistencies arise among models that require a great deal of painstaking discipline and coordination between them. The multiple-model notion is based on the claim that it is not possible to present all application views in a single representation, so diverse models are used, with each model representing a different view. This article advocates a second approach that utilizes a single model with multilevel (static/dynamic and behavioral) specification. To substantiate this approach s feasibility, we embrace the occurrence-only model, which comprises (a) Stoic ontology, (b) thinging machine (TM) language and (c) Lupascian logic. In this paper, we focus on TM modeling as the mechanism of single-model building. We claim that a TM can be a unifying diagrammatic language for virtually all current modeling languages. To demonstrate such a claim, we redraft almost all the diagrammatic representations in The Handbook of Requirements Modeling of the International Requirements Engineering Board. This redrafting includes context, class, activity, use case, data flow and state diagrams. The results seem to indicate that there are no difficulties in representing all views in TM.

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arXiv2023

Antithesis of Object Orientation: Occurrence-Only Modeling Applied in Engineering and Medicine

This paper has a dual character, combining a philosophical ontological exploration with a conceptual modeling approach in systems and software engineering. Such duality is already practiced in software engineering, in which the current dominant modeling thesis is object orientation. This work embraces an anti-thesis that centers solely on the process rather than emphasizing the object. The approach is called occurrence-only modeling, in which an occurrence means an event or process where a process is defined as an orchestrated net of events that form a semantical whole. In contrast to object orientation, in this occurrence-only modeling objects are nothing more than long events. We apply this paradigm to (1) a UML/BPMN inventory system in simulation engineering and (2) an event-based system that represents medical occurrences that occur on a timeline. The aim of such a venture is to enhance the field of conceptual modeling by adding yet a new alternative methodology and clarifying differences among approaches. Conceptual modeling s importance has been recognized in many research areas. An active research community in simulation engineering demonstrates the growing interest in conceptual modeling. In the clinical domains, temporal information elucidates the occurrence of medical events (e.g., visits, laboratory tests). These applications give an opportunity to propose a new approach that includes (a) a Stoic ontology that has two types of being, existence and subsistence; (b) Thinging machines that limit activities to five generic actions; and (c) Lupascian logic, which handles negative events. With such a study, we aim to substantiate the assertion that the occurrence only approach is a genuine philosophical base for conceptual modeling. The results in this paper seem to support such a claim.

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arXiv2023

Stoic Conceptual Modeling Applied to Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)

Basic abstraction principles are reached through ontology, which was traditionally conceived as a depiction of the world itself. Ontology is also described using conceptual modeling (CM) that defines fundamental concepts of reality. CM is one of the central activities in computer science, especially as it is mainly used in software engineering as an intermediate artifact for system construction. To achieve such a goal, we propose Stoic CM (SCM) as a description of what a system must do functionally with minimal ambiguity. As a case study, we apply SCM to investigate the ontology of BPMN (business process modeling notation). Such an undertaking would demonstrate SCM notions and simultaneously may offer a viable ontological foundation for BPMN. SCM defines the being of things and actions in reality based on Stoic notions of existence and subsistence. It has two levels of specification: (1) a subsistence static model where things and actions subsist and (2) an existence dynamic model where things and actions exist in time. From the Stoic ontological point of view, while a thing existing has a clear denotation, subsistence indicates the thing is being there, but it is inactive (does not participate in an event). We apply SCM to BPMN processes that involve buying a new car with many notions, such as activity, task, event, and message. The result indicates that SCM produces a tighter representation of reality, thus providing the necessary description of the part in the application world to be used as requirements for developing the software system.

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arXiv2022

Conceptual Modeling Founded on the Stoic Ontology: Reality with Dynamic Existence and Static Subsistence

According to the software engineering community, the acknowledgement is growing that a theory of software development is needed to integrate the currently myriad popular methodologies, some of which are based on opposing perspectives. Conceptual modeling (CM) can contribute to such a theory. CM defines fundamental concepts to create representations of reality to achieve ontologically sound software behavior that is characterized by truthfulness to reality and conceptual clarity. In this context, CM is founded on theories about the world that serve to represent a given domain. Ontologies have made their way into CM as tools in requirements analysis, implementation specification, and software architecture. This paper involves building a direct connection between reality and CM by establishing mapping between reality and modeling thinging machines (TMs). Specifically, Stoic ontology serves to define the existence of TM things and actions in reality. Such a development would benefit CM in addition to demonstrating that classical concepts in philosophy can be applied to modern fields of study. The TM model includes static and dynamic specifications. The dynamic level involves time-based events that can be mapped to reality. The problem concerns the nature of a time-less static description, which provides regions where the actions in events take place; without them, the dynamic description collapses. The Stoics came up with a brilliant move: the assumed reality to be a broader category than being. Reality is made of things that exist and things that subsist. In this case, the dynamic TM description is in existence, whereas the static, mapped portion of the dynamic description is in subsistence. We apply such ontology to a contract workflow example. The result seems to open a new avenue of CM that may enhance the theoretical foundation for software and system development.

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arXiv2022

Modeling System Events and Negative Events Using Thinging Machines Based on Lupascian Logic

This paper is an exploration of the ontological foundations of conceptual modeling that addresses the concept of events and related notions. Development models that convey how things change over space and time demand continued attention in systems and software engineering. In this context, foundational matters in modeling systems include the definition of an event, the types of events, and the kinds of relationships that can be recognized among events. Although a broad spectrum of research of such issues exists in various fields of study, events have extensive applicability in computing (e.g., event-driven programming, architecture, data modeling, automation, and surveillance). While these computing notions are diverse, their event-based nature lets us apply many of the same software engineering techniques to all of them. In this paper, the focus is on addressing the dynamic concepts of system events and negative events. Specifically, we concentrate on what computer scientists would refer to as an event grammar and event calculus. Analyzing the concept of event would further the understanding of the event notion and provide a sound foundation for improving the theory and practice of conceptual modeling. An event in computer science has many definitions (e.g., anything that happens, changes in the properties of objects, and the occurrence of and transition between states). This paper is based upon a different conceptualization using thinging machines and Lupascian logic to define negative events. An event is defined as a time penetrated domain s region, which is described in terms of things and five-action machines. Accordingly, samples from event grammar and event calculus are remodeled and analyzed in terms of this definition. The results point to an enriched modeling technique with an enhanced conceptualization of events that can benefit behavior modeling in systems.

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arXiv2022

Lupascian Non-Negativity Applied to Conceptual Modeling: Alternating Static Potentiality and Dynamic Actuality

In software engineering, conceptual modeling focuses on creating representations of the world that are as faithful and rich as possible, with the aim of guiding the development of software systems. In contrast, in the computing realm, the notion of ontology has been characterized as being closely related to conceptual modeling and is often viewed as a specification of a conceptualization. Accordingly, conceptual modeling and ontology engineering now address the same problem of representing the world in a suitable fashion. A high-level ontology provides a means to describe concepts and their interactions with each other and to capture structural and behavioral features in the intended domain. This paper aims to analyze ontological concepts and semantics of modeling notations to provide a common understanding among software engineers. An important issue in this context concerns the question of whether the modeled world might be stratified into ontological levels. We introduce an abstract system of two-level domain ontology to be used as a foundation for conceptual models. We study the two levels of staticity and dynamics in the context of the thinging machine (TM) model using the notions of potentiality and actuality that the Franco-Romanian philosopher Stephane Lupasco developed in logic. He provided a quasi-universal rejection of contradiction where every event was always associated with a no event, such that the actualization of an event entails the potentialization of a no event and vice versa without either ever disappearing completely. This approach is illustrated by re-modeling UML state machines in TM modeling. The results strengthen the semantics of a static versus dynamic levels in conceptual modeling and sharpen the notion of events as a phenomenon without negativity alternating between the two levels of dynamics and staticity.

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arXiv2022

Conceptual Modeling Applied to Data Semantics

In software system design, one of the purposes of diagrammatic modeling is to explain something (e.g., data tables) to others. Very often, syntax of diagrams is specified while the intended meaning of diagrammatic constructs remains intuitive and approximate. Conceptual modeling has been developed to capture concepts and their interactions with each other in the intended domain and to represent structural and behavioral features of the modeled system. This paper is a venture into diagrammatic approaches to the semantics of modeling notations, with a focus on data and graph semantics. The first decade of the new millennium has seen several new world-changing businesses spring to life (e.g., Google and Twitter), that have put connected data at the center of their trade. Harnessing such data requires significant effort and expertise, and it quickly becomes prohibitively expensive. One solution involves building graph-based data models, which is a challenging problem. In many applications, the utilized software is managing not just objects as well as isolated and discrete data items but also the connections between them. Data semantics is a key ingredient to construct a model that explicitly describes the relationships between data objects. In this paper, we claim that current ad hoc graphs that attempt to provide semantics to data structures (e.g., relational tables and tabular SQL) are problematic. These graphs mix static abstract concepts with dynamic specification of objects (particulars). Such a claim is supported by analysis that applies the thinging machine (TM) model to provide diagrammatic representations of data (e.g., Neo4J graphs). The study s results show that to take advantage of graph algorithms and simultaneously achieve appropriate data semantics, the data graphs should be developed as simplified forms of TM.

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