On the Foundation for Roles in RM-ODP: Contributions from Conceptual Modelling

In this paper, we attempt to provide a semantic foundation for the role-related concepts in the RM-ODP. We believe that some theories of conceptual modelling may help us to provide a well-founded underpinning for these concepts, and to harmonize competing proposals for them. As a starting point of our effort, we study the definitions of Genilloud and Wegmann, and the proposed definition in the Working Document for the amendment of the standard as contributed by Linington. Keywords: roles, RM-ODP, conceptual modelling, conceptual foundations, systems specification