Using formal concept analysis for the verification of process-data matrices in conceptual domain models

One of the first steps in a software engineering process is the elaboration of the conceptual domain model. In this paper, we investigate how Formal Concept Analysis can be used to formally underpin the construction of a conceptual domain model. In particular, we demonstrate that intuitive verification rules for process-data matrices can be formally grounded in FCA theory. As a case study, we show that the well-formedness rules from MERODE are isomorphic to the clustering rules in Formal Concept Analysis, and that the relationships in the class diagram are isomorphic to the subconcept-superconcept relationship in FCA.