What is a conceptual model? – A conceptual model is the model of an application that the designers want users to understand. By using the software and perhaps reading its documentation, users build a model in their minds of how it works. It is best if the model that users build in their minds is like the one the designers intended.

That is more likely if you design a clear conceptual model beforehand. Developing a conceptual model before designing a user interface is hard: it is tempting to jump right into discussing user interface concepts, such as control panels, menus, and data displays. The temptation is exacerbated by the tendency of sales and marketing people to state functional requirements in terms of window layout and mouse clicks.

When marketing requirements are stated in UI terms, gracefully but firmly decline them, and demand requirements stated in terms of the task: the problems users face and the goals they wish to achieve. A conceptual model is not a user interface. It is not expressed in terms of keystrokes, mouse actions, dialog boxes, controls, or screen graphics.

It is expressed in terms of the concepts of the intended users’ tasks: the data users manipulate, how the data is organized, and what users do to the data. A conceptual model explains, abstractly, the function of the software and what concepts people need to be aware of in order to use it. The idea is that by carefully crafting an explicit conceptual model, and then designing a UI from that, the resulting software will be cleaner, simpler, and easier to understand.

As simple as possible, but no simpler— Albert Einstein One goal, when developing a conceptual model for a planned software application, is to make it as simple as possible. The fewer concepts it has for users to master, the better, as long as it provides the required functionality.

What is the difference between conceptual model and model?

For other uses, see Model (disambiguation) and Conceptual model (computer science). A conceptual model is a representation of a system, made of the composition of concepts which are used to help people know, understand, or simulate a subject the model represents. It is also a set of concepts.

What makes a good concept model?

Clear communication is of the utmost importance in the modern business environment. For a project to be successful, every stakeholder involved needs to have a precise and unambiguous understanding of the process and business requirements. A concept model provides a way for business analysts to communicate the knowledge of their domain using the established business vocabulary.

A concept model is a way of organising and structuring a business vocabulary so that the operational know-how of a domain can be communicated clearly, thoroughly, and consistently. The basis of a concept model is a glossary that defines the core noun concepts of a specific knowledge domain. It provides a semantic blueprint for supporting all the relevant business communication such as business needs and requirements that are commonly highly complex.

The IIBA BABOK guide defines the concept model as follows: A concept model is used to organise the business vocabulary needed to consistently and thoroughly communicate the knowledge of a domain, A good concept model should focus on rich vocabulary consisting of high-quality and reliant definitions that are free of abundant terminology and untainted by any technical, data, or implementation bias.

The purpose of a concept model is to recognise the right terms to be used in communication during business analysis. This is particularly important on knowledge-intensive projects where it’s crucial to make precise and subtle distinctions. At the same time, concept models allow for clear communication and understanding without the need to use technical models, such as entity-relationship or class diagrams.

Concept modes are useful for organisations looking to work on their core knowledge by organising, managing, communicating, and building on it. They help capture large numbers of business rules and remove the resistance among the stakeholders about the perceived technical language of data models, class diagrams, and similar instruments.

What are the affecting factors of a conceptual model?

Considering affecting factors – Building on some of their earlier work, Gemino and Wand acknowledge some main points to consider when studying the affecting factors: the content that the conceptual model must represent, the method in which the model will be presented, the characteristics of the model’s users, and the conceptual model languages specific task.

The conceptual model’s content should be considered in order to select a technique that would allow relevant information to be presented. The presentation method for selection purposes would focus on the technique’s ability to represent the model at the intended level of depth and detail. The characteristics of the model’s users or participants is an important aspect to consider.

A participant’s background and experience should coincide with the conceptual model’s complexity, else misrepresentation of the system or misunderstanding of key system concepts could lead to problems in that system’s realization. The conceptual model language task will further allow an appropriate technique to be chosen.

What are conceptual models and conceptual graphs used for?

Models of concepts and models that are conceptual – The term conceptual model is normal. It could mean “a model of concept” or it could mean “a model that is conceptual.” A distinction can be made between what models are and what models are made of, With the exception of iconic models, such as a scale model of Winchester Cathedral, most models are concepts.

But they are, mostly, intended to be models of real world states of affairs. The value of a model is usually directly proportional to how well it corresponds to a past, present, future, actual or potential state of affairs. A model of a concept is quite different because in order to be a good model it need not have this real world correspondence.

In artificial intelligence, conceptual models and conceptual graphs are used for building expert systems and knowledge-based systems ; here the analysts are concerned to represent expert opinion on what is true not their own ideas on what is true.