Information Modeling: Forty Years of Friendship

Information systems design was the theme for a research group at Stockholm University under the leadership of Professor Janis Bubenko, Jr. The research group was called Computer Aided Design of Information Systems (CADIS). The CADIS group developed modeling methods and, at the same time, computer support for the modeling of information systems. The methods were stepwise defined based on early practical applications. Formal modeling languages were defined. The computer support tools turned out to be powerful and grew into a full Database Management System (DBMS), which was further developed into a commercial product (CS5). The CS5 DBMS was based on binary relations. The CADIS approach to modeling and to the DBMS was too early to be commercially successful; however, the basic ideas behind the modeling and the DBMS have survived several generations of “new” approaches to modeling as well as to the DBMS.