Engineering a library of reusable conceptual components

In the paper we study the problem of reusing information system conceptual schemas. In particular, a methodological approach for building reusable conceptual components starting from previously developed conceptual schemas is presented. A basic element of the approach is the concept of affinity, essential to identify similar components from families of existing conceptual schemas in a given application domain. Criteria and metrics to evaluate the affinity between components in different schemas are defined, and clustering techniques to classify components according to affinity levels are discussed. Finally, tools supporting the affinity-based construction of reusable conceptual components and their proper organization in a library are briefly presented.