Modeling Patterns for IDMP Ontology

Owned by Elisa Kendall
Last updated: Apr 26, 2023 by Heiner Oberkampf

A modeling pattern is a well-proven, reusable solution for a particular modeling problem or scenario in this case, for ontology development. It is a general template or design that can be applied to various ontological domains or subdomains and is intended to capture best practices and common structures for representing domain knowledge. This contributes towards the development of ontologies that are more consistent, reusable, understandable and interoperable. The sub-pages listed below depict modeling patterns critical for the IDMP project, which are described with further details in their respective pages.

List of Modeling Patterns with Current Life-Cycle Stage

Life-Cycle Stages of Modeling Pattern Implementation

The life-cycle of a modeling pattern reflects the maturity of IDMP-O with respect to that concrete modeling challenge. As additions and changes will be introduced with new releases, the life-cycle of a modeling pattern should help users of the ontology to understand what can be considered stable/approved and which patterns are in active development

Life-Cycle StageDescription
DRAFT
  • The pattern is in initial stage. The documentation should provide overview of the modeling challenges to be addressed by, e.g., through CQs, examples or similar with initial diagrams for the model pattern (alternatives). 
REVIEW
  • The proposed draft pattern is reviewed by at least 3 pharma SMEs 
IMPLEMENTATION
  • The ontology engineering team encodes the pattern in the ontology
TESTING
  • The pattern is instantiated with example/test data which is used to test the pattern in different scenarios. After successful testing the documentation is prepared for final SME review and approval through the Core Team
APPROVED
  • The pattern has passed initial discussions, tests, and has been presented to and approved by the Core Team
REVISION
  • A previously approved pattern is revision, due to the availability of new information or new test cases that require an update of the existing pattern.

Documentation Requirements for Ontology Modeling Patterns

To achieve consistency in documentation, all patterns should follow a basic structure including the components described below and allow understanding and review by non-ontologists

Documentation Components

  1. Intro: What is the modeling challenge? Why do we need a pattern?
  2. Related Competency Questions (non-comprehensive)
  3. Relation to ISO-IDMP Standards: Reference, correspondance and "translation"
  4. Diagram(s) for the pattern(s) with draw.io and description
  5. Diagram with an illustrative example instantiating the pattern (using draw.io)