Supporting the decision process for the choice of a domain modeling scheme

Enterprises are experiencing the need to model their domain in order to improve the communication and control over their intellectual assets. There are several different approaches to modeling a domain, some old-fashioned, some trendy; practitioners are at a loss when having to decide which approach best suits their situation. In this research we compare different domain modeling schemes to find out which problem each of them is best suited to solve. The modeling schemes we consider are taxonomy, thesaurus and ontology. We draw relevant information from evaluating case studies and interviewing practitioners in the field of domain modeling. We restrict the scope to those projects that aim at improving the retrieval of information. The aim of this research is to support practitioners when they want to model their domain to choose the right scheme, considering the trade-offs being made between requirements and effort.