Participatory, Example-Based Data Modeling In Padi (Padi Technical Report 4)

Abstract

Domain experts are essential for successful software development, but these experts may not recognize their ideas when these are abstracted into Unified Modeling Language (UML) or ontologies. We describe a Web-based tool for modeling that creates and manipulates a simple data model without representing it in UML, while promoting collaboration and the use of examples to compare and validate the model. The free, open-source tool, “EMo,” is a by-product of a team effort to invent and refine a complex data model and library of examples for the Principled Assessment Designs for Inquiry (PADI) project. We discuss alternative tools, such as UML editors, as well as the process that led to EMo.