Authors: John Mylopoulos, Rick Salay
Tags: 2010, conceptual modeling
Models are used widely within software engineering and have been studied from many perspectives. A perspective that has received little attention is the characterization of the role each model plays within a modeling project. We refer to this as model intent, and the collection of roles for all models as the role level within a project. Knowing the intent of a model supports model comprehension by providing the correct context for interpretation and enhances model quality by clearly defining what information it must contain. Furthermore, formal expression of this intent enables automated support for model analysis. Despite the value that knowledge of model intent can provide, there are no adequate means in the current state of modeling practice for expressing this information, apart from informal documentation. The focus of this paper is to provide a framework for understanding model intent, distinguish it from related modeling concepts and discuss its uses.Read the full paper here: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-16373-9_6
