A Fundamental View on the Process of Conceptual Modeling

摘要

In an ongoing effort to better understand the process of creating conceptual models (in particular formal ones), we present a fundamental view of the process of modeling. We base this view on the idea that participants in such a process are involved in a deliberate and goal-driven effort to share and reconcile representations of their personal conceptions of (parts of) the world. This effort takes the shape of a modeling dialogue, involving the use of controlled language. We thus take a fundamental approach to subjective aspects of modeling, as opposed to traditional approaches which essentially consider models as objective entities. We position and present our initial theory of modeling, and briefly discuss how we intend to validate and further develop it.