An ontology-driven software development framework

Abstract

The software development process has been curtailed by the lack of a methodology that can capture and maintain the softer, humanist characteristics of organizational systems into the software product. This is attributed to the absence of a software model that can capture and maintain these characteristics at analysis through to design and implementation phases of the development life cycle. Using grounded theory method, the authors investigated issues that limit the usability of software systems in organizations. These were tracked back to the developmental stages of software products and were attributed to the human aspects of organizational systems that are not captured. On the other end, ontologies are explored and positioned as artefacts that can be used to capture the softer, human aspects of organizational systems. This paper therefore presents a framework that positions ontologies at the centre of the software development process. This ontology artefact takes the role of the software model that bridges the communication gap between the software development phases as well as among stakeholders in the development process. At the same time, it allows soft issues such as culture, social context, semantics and pragmatics to be maintained in the software products that run organizational information systems.