Properties do not have Properties: Investigating a Questionable Conceptual Modelling Practice
Andrew Burton‐Jones, Dinesh Batra, Jeffrey Parsons, Ronald Arthur Gerard Weber, V. Ramesh · 2003
Systems analysts use conceptual models to help designers, users, and other stakeholders reach a shared understanding of a domain. Despite their importance in practice, research indicates that users and designers frequently find conceptual models difficult to understand. Recently, researchers have used theories of the structure and behavior of the real world (known as ontologies) to identify problematic conceptual modeling practices. This research investigates Bunge’s (1977) ontological rule that properties do not have properties. This contradicts a longstanding conceptual modeling rule that relationships can have attributes. We undertook an experiment to test these conflicting rules in the context of entity-relationship diagrams. The results indicate that representing properties of properties in conceptual models can impede users’ understanding. Interestingly, it does not appear to affect users’ confidence in their understanding.