Bridging the Gap Between Ontology Engineering and Software Engineering

Ontology engineering requires specific skills and expertise, making its adoption by software developers a challenging task. The complex nature of ontological modeling and the use of specialized languages and tools represent significant obstacles for those unfamiliar with this domain. Consequently, bridging the gap between ontology engineering and software engineering requires innovative approaches that simplify the integration of ontological concepts into software systems, enabling developers to harness the benefits of ontological reasoning and semantic knowledge representation. This paper introduces a new approach that automates the transformation of ontologies into UML/OCL models, commonly used by software developers. The integration of OCL constraints enables the precise expression of axiomatic relationships and logic required to simulate the ontological reasoning process. This approach allows the translation of ontologies into a developer-friendly format while preserving the semantics and reasoning capabilities of ontological models. The transformation process is implemented in an application named ReCoRe, which is used to test and validate the approach. It represents a significant step towards enhancing the synergy between ontology and software engineering, making the adoption of ontologies in practical software development more accessible and beneficial to a wider range of developers.