When designing an information system, conceptual modeling is the activity that elicits and describes the general knowledge the system needs to know. This description, called the conceptual schema, is necessary in order to develop an information system. Recently, many researchers and professionals share a vision in which the conceptual schema becomes the only important description to be created, as the system implementation will be automatically constructed from its schema – this is e.g. the basic idea behind OMG’s Model Driven Architecture.

Olivé’s textbook explains in detail the principles of conceptual modeling independently from particular methods and languages and shows how to apply them in real-world projects. He covers all aspects of the engineering process from structural modeling over behavioral modeling to meta-modeling, and completes the presentation with an extensive case study based on the osCommerce system, an online store-management software program freely available under the GNU General Public License. His presentation is based on well-known industry standards like UML and OCL as a particular conceptual modeling language, yet also delivers the basics of the formal logical language background.

Written for computer science students in classes on information systems modeling as well as for professionals feeling the need to formalize their experiences or to update their knowledge, Olivé delivers here a comprehensive treatment of all aspects of the modeling process. His book is complemented by lots of exercises and additional online teaching material.