ON-TO-METHODOLOGY: A GENERIC ONTOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Ontologies are used for representation and reuse of domain knowledge. The way how ontologies are created is very important. The process of ontology development influences the usability of the ontology outside its primary application and its suitability for integration with other ontologies. A few research groups are now proposing a series of steps and methodologies for developing ontologies. However, mainly due to the fact that Ontological Engineering is still a relatively immature discipline, each work group employs its own methodology. This brings inconsistency of viewpoints into consideration because different methodologies are best suitable for different domains along with the issue that various stakeholders are associated with a particular project and all stakeholders have a different view of the project. Hence new approaches to ontology creation are necessary to bridge the "ontology gap" and enable domain experts to create formalized knowledge. In this work, I will be proposing an ontology development methodology called On-To-Methodology that is comprehensive & generic. I elicit the domain knowledge in a structured manner and employ various documents to support the development process. A case study on the healthcare domain is also performed for illustration of the methodology. An evaluation has been performed to check the consistency, correctness and completeness of our methodology. A comparison of the methodology has been made with the popular ontology development methodology named “METHONTOLOGY”, which helps in evaluating the effectiveness of the proposed method. A tool titled On-To-Methodology Tool has been created to support the development and evaluation of On-To-Methodology.