Pattern Matching in Conceptual Models – AFormal Multi-Modelling Language Approach

Recognizing patterns in conceptual models is useful for a number of purposes, for example revealing syntactical errors, model comparison, and identification of business process improvement potentials. In this contribution, we introduce a formal approach for the specification and matching of structural patterns in conceptual models. Unlike existing approaches, we do not focus on a certain application problem or a specific modelling language. Instead, our approach is generic making it applicable for any pattern matching purpose and any conceptual modelling language. In order to build sets representing structural model patterns, we define formal operations based on set theory, which can be applied to arbitrary models represented by sets. Besides a conceptual and formal specification of our approach, we present a prototypical modelling tool that shows its applicability through a particular application scenario.