Odd Ivar Lindland

Understanding quality in conceptual modeling

With the increasing focus on early development as a major factor in determining overall quality, many researchers are trying to define what makes a good conceptual model. However, existing frameworks often do little more than list desirable properties. The authors examine attempts to define quality as it relates to conceptual models and propose their own framework, which includes a systematic approach to identifying quality-improvement goals and the means to achieve them. The framework has two unique features: it distinguishes between goals and means by separating what you are trying to achieve in conceptual modeling from how to achieve it (it has been made so that the goals are more realistic by introducing the notion of feasibility); and it is closely linked to linguistic concepts because modeling is essentially making statements in some language.<<ETX>>

Defining quality aspects for conceptual models

The notion of quality for information system models and other conceptual models is not well understood, and in most literature only lists of useful properties have been provided. However, the recent framework of Lindland et al. has tried to take a more systematic approach, defining the notions of syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic quality of models, and distinguishing between quality goals and the means to achieve them. Here, this framework is extended by discussing the six semiotic layers of communication identified by FRISCO. Definitions are provided for physical, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and social quality, respectively, and to the extent possible, metrics are provided for the defined quality goals. In addition the related areas of language and knowledge quality are discussed briefly.

PPP: an integrated CASE environment

This article presents the PPP (Phenomena, Processes, and Programs) environment. PPP is based on a development strategy for information systems and consists of a diagrammatical language, a method, and a support tool. The strategy follows a top-down approach where specifications are developed in an incremental and iterative manner. Furthermore, we emphasize on integrating analysis and overall design.

Validating Conceptual Models by Transformational Prototyping

Validation of user requirements should start as early as possible in the development process. A conceptual model is a suitable medium for an early representation of functional requirements. Despite the useroriented nature of many conceptual models, requirements error are difficult to detect as the size and complexity of the model increases. Thus, the consequences of the specified requirements are difficult to judge only from inspecting the models. To improve the model comprehensibility, a conceptual model with executable properties can be transformed to an executable prototype that can be evaluated to detect potential misconceptions expressed in the model.

Towards a Deeper Understanding of Quality in Requirements Engineering

The notion of quality in requirements specifications is poorly understood, and in most literature only bread and butter lists of useful properties have been provided. However, the recent frameworks of Lindland et al. and Pohl have tried to take a more systematic approach. In this paper, these two frameworks are reviewed and compared. Although they have different outlook, their deeper structures are not contradictory.

Modeling cooperative work for workflow management

Characteristic to workflow management is modeling of workflow of manual coordination activities and automated production activities. Conceptual models are used to analyze and describe workflow, though most of these models are not very suitable for representing and relating both coordination activities and production activities. In the Input-Process-Output paradigm, workflow is modeled in terms of processes and data flow, whereas the Customer-Supplier paradigm defines conversation patterns between the actors. The rather intimate relationship between actor interactions and processual structures is recorded in neither of them. In this paper, we suggest to extend the IPO paradigm with concepts for coordination activities. We introduce actors and services as a separate model, and show how two-way flows, ports and rules help us model cooperative and manual aspects in data flow diagrams.

Transformations in CASE tools-A compiler view

A traditional compiler architecture is used to discuss how a transformations component can be integrated in CASE tools. The architecture outlines some general requirements to the transformation component as well as to the source and the target language. To illustrate this approach, the PPP (Phenomena, Processes, and Programs) environment is presented. Within this environment, several transformations from PPP models to programs have been implemented. A specific transformation from PPP models to TEQUEL/C is discussed with reference to the compiler architecture.

20 Years of Quality of Models

We are very pleased that our CAiSE’95 paper has been selected to be included in the Springer book that celebrates the 25th anniversary of the CAiSE conferences series. This paper entitled ‘Towards a Deeper Understanding of Quality in Requirements Engineering’ presented a development of work started some years earlier in the research group of Arne Solvberg on the topic of quality of models. This topic has been of interest during the next 20 years by us and a number of other researchers both in the context of IS development and in other areas, and will in our view be a relevant topic for the foreseeable future.