Model Inspection in Dicodess

• Authors: Matthias Buchs;Pius Hättenschwiler
• Venue: Proceedings of the 2008 conference on Collaborative Decision Making: Perspectives and Challenges
• Year: 2008

Dicodess is a model based distributed cooperative decision support system. It encapsulates the underlying model in a graphical user interface to shield users from the technical details of model configuration and optimization. However, a model usually evolves over time and therefore needs verification accordingly. Furthermore, users sometimes might want to have a better insight into the model to better understand a “strange” solution. Model views are a new concept for modeling language and domain independent model visualization. The focus is not on visualizing model input or model output but on the model's structure, the formalized knowledge. Modelers as well as domain experts are able to inspect a model visually in order to get a better understanding and to have a common base of discussion. The improvement of model understanding and communication among the people involved will lead to models of better quality. In this article we are proposing an integration of model views into Dicodess. This integration enables mutual benefit: Dicodess users get direct access to model visualization which through Dicodess' cooperative functionality can be done even in collaboration.