Ensuring the quality of conceptual representations

  • Authors:

  • H. James Nelson;David E. Monarchi

  • Affiliations:

  • College of Business and Administration, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Carbondale, USA 62901-4627;Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado, Systems Division, Boulder, USA 80309-0419

  • Venue:
  • Software Quality Control
  • Year:
  • 2007

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Abstract

High quality data and process representations are critical to the success of system development efforts. Despite this importance, quantitative methods for evaluating the quality of a representation are virtually nonexistent. This is a major shortcoming. However, there is another approach. Instead of evaluating the quality of the final representation, the representation process itself can be evaluated. This paper views the modeling process as a communication channel. In a good communication channel, sufficient error prevention, error detection, and error correction mechanisms exist to ensure that the output message matches the input message. A good modeling process will also have mechanisms for preventing, detecting, and correcting errors at each step from observation to elicitation to analysis to final representation. This paper describes a theoretically-based set of best practices for ensuring that each step of the process is performed correctly, followed by a proof of concept experiment demonstrating the utility of the method for producing a representation that closely reflects the real world.