Concept modeling vs. data modeling in practice

This chapter shows the usefulness of terminological concept modeling as a first step in data modeling. First, we introduce terminological concept modeling with terminological ontologies, i.e. concept systems enriched with characteristics modeled as feature specifications. This enables a formal account of the inheritance of characteristics and allows us to introduce a number of principles and constraints which render concept modeling more coherent than earlier approaches. Second, we explain how terminological ontologies can be used as the basis for developing conceptual and logical data models. We also show how to map from the various elements in the terminological ontology to elements in the data models, and explain the differences between the models. Finally the usefulness of terminological ontologies as a prerequisite for IT development and data modeling is illustrated with examples from the Danish public sector (a user interface for drug prescription and a data model for food control).