The European project “MOST: Marrying Ontology and Software Technology” is the origin of this book. The project is based on the observation that software engineering and ontology engineering have evolved on parallel tracks without significant interaction. Each has important insights and techniques that could be employed by the other. In particular, ontologies can be used to provide a high level of consistency and traceability in the software engineering process. The book shows how this can be done.

It is intended to serve different audiences, ranging from researchers who seek an introduction to a new area of investigation to students (advanced undergraduate and graduate) in a classroom. To assist instructors and students, the editors have identified sections in the book as being particularly important for students.

The editors of the volume use a clever design for the book. It starts with an introductory chapter discussing the problems dealt with in the book and closes with conclusions and the outlook for the future. In between, there are 12 chapters divided into four parts, each with three chapters. Each part has a brief introduction to the topic of the part and a description of how the chapters fit together. Each chapter begins with an abstract and a paragraph or two describing the chapter’s content, and ends with a summary or conclusion to remind the reader what has just been discussed.

The four parts take a bottom-up approach: basic software and ontology technology, foundation of ontology-driven software development (ODSD), consistency checking in ODSD, and ODSD with process guidance (including metalanguages). Explicit bridge-building is discussed at the last two levels. The three chapters in each part focus on the software engineering aspects of the part, the ontology engineering aspects, and the relationship between the two technologies. The topics may not be presented in this strict order in each part. For example, in the first part, on basic technology, chapters 2, 3, and 4 cover software, ontology, and bridge relations, respectively and in that order. In the third part on consistency checking in ODSD, chapters 8, 9, and 10 address bridge relations, software, and ontology, in that order. So each part has a different structure, depending on the collective insight of the editors, who are also co-authors of individual chapters.

The book has a few shortcomings. First, the related website has very little on it at this time. Anyone looking for materials such as slides or software resources will be disappointed. Second, as a textbook, it lacks end-of-chapter problems and exercises. The website is supposed to have quizzes and solutions, but they appear to be password protected, so I don’t know if they have actually been implemented. The book is probably too terse to be used as a textbook. Third, while Figure 1.9 (p. 13) depicts a roadmap to the book that is consistent with the table of contents, the replicas of that figure that appear at the beginning of each part differ from both Figure 1.9 and the table of contents. The erroneous figures may have been correct in an earlier version that slipped past the editors when reviewing the proofs. Despite these flaws, I still consider this a good book.