ASSO: a formal methodology of conceptual database design

ASSO is a formal methodology of conceptual database design which provides both an innovative mechanism for structuring specification and refinement approach for deriving efficient implementation. A relationship holds between ASSO and B, a highly developed formal method of software engineering currently promoted for commercial use. In this paper, we propose two conceptual views of the ASSO model in terms of B abstract machines and the ASSO refinement as a process to transform the conceptual model of ASSO into a schema composed of all and only disjoint abstract machines. This description can be usefully exploited for designing an ASSO-toolkit based on a support tool for B which exploits the conceptual features of ASSO to increase design quality.