A practical notation for object oriented analysis with a formal meaning

Abstract

A more formal approach to object oriented information modeling (H. Kilov and J. Ross, 1994) is proposed. The five basic associations (dependency, reference, composition, subtyping and symmetric relationship) are defined mathematically, but may still be used in a graphical notation in a user friendly way. In this way, it is possible to obtain an information model with a strict mathematical meaning without additional effort.