Formalizing the Role of Goals in the Development of Domain-Specific Ontological Frameworks

In this paper we propose a high-level scheme that assists ontology engineers develop appropriate ontological frameworks. By ontological frameworks we mean those structures that specify particular phases and also provide implemented components for developing ontologies. Based on the i* conceptual modeling framework, our proposed scheme guides ontology engineers by customizing a suitable ontological framework based on their preferences and their specific domain necessities. In the proposed scheme, We specify the users of an ontological framework, their high-level softgoals as well as the goals that contribute to these softgoals. We exploit business processes and bind them to the goals in order to implement the framework.