A procedure to define the object type structure of a conceptual schema

The most important phase in the design of an information system is, in our opinion, the phase which we have given the name Information Analysis (I.A.). During I.A. a conceptual schema is designed which accurately reflects the deep semantic structure of the information which will eventually be used in the information system. This paper describes part of a methodology which systematizes the design of the conceptual schema, forcing the user to resolve ambiguities and documenting his decisions. The algorithms used in this methodology allow for automatic detection of certain semantic inconsistencies, as well as automatic generation of (parts of) the final conceptual schema based on specifications provided by the user. In this paper, we concentrate on the specification and generation of the object type structure of the conceptual schema