In order for the user to have clearer concepts about the functioning of a particular system, the designer creates a conceptual model of this or that application. For this purpose, various documentation, graphs, specifications, diagrams and so on are used. So that you can understand exactly what a conceptual model is, what goals and objectives it pursues, in this article we decided to dwell on this concept in more detail.
The meaning of the term
A conceptual model is a specific pattern. In order to form the semantic structure of a certain object, it uses various concepts and the relationships between them. However, it is worth considering the moment that the conceptual model of the system is abstract. But this is not the only meaning of the term. In addition, there is the concept of "conceptual model of the subject area." The meaning of this term is that a list of related concepts is used to describe a sphere. For this purpose, the classification of definitions, their characteristics and properties, as well as the laws of the processes occurring in them, are used.
Main goals
It is worth noting that the conceptual model is created primarily to facilitate the perception of information by an ordinary user. In other words, a narrow and detailed description of the structure's action is being developed. To achieve this result, it is necessary first of all to make this model the simplest (for this purpose, use the minimum number of values). And secondly, try to orient it as much as possible towards certain tasks (that is, to limit as much as possible the user's work with non-configuring values in this area).
Basic goals
The conceptual model has the following objectives:
- Create a simple, consistent and easy to use and learn structure. To this end, the task areas are divided into concepts that can be used to work with different objects.
- Keep the terminology stable. This is achieved by the fact that the conceptual data model, which at the initial stage consists of a glossary of terms, is used to recognize each action and object painted in the program.
As proved, the non-use of this terminology leads to the fact that several concepts are used to define a single scheme, or the same term is used to describe different schemes.
Conceptual model development
This process is to create an initial outline. In the future, the developer will be able to use it to implement software. To give a description of a complex system, a certain algorithm of the behavior of the components of this system is used, thus reflecting their interaction with each other. There are times when the information contained in the description is not enough to understand and study the object of modeling. To correct this omission, one should return to the stage of preparing the table of contents and add the data, the absence of which was established during the formalization of the object. Moreover, as practice shows, there can be several similar returns. By the way, the creation of the schemes considered in the article for simple structures is not justified.
In
simulation modeling , various conceptual models having different structuring have found application. Most often, their schemes are guided by mathematical theories. This leads to problems in choosing an appropriate system for describing the required modeling object. So, for example, for discrete circuits it is customary to use process-orientation structures. To compose a continuous design, flow diagrams of system dynamics are used. The conceptual
data model is developed using a special language, which is fixed in the structural structure itself. In order to simplify the construction and programming of a particular circuit, specially developed techniques of programming technology are used.
Important components
You should be aware that the conceptual model includes a number of important elements. First of all, these include the study of objects and the study of their actions. That is, the user must study the list of all applications and manipulations visible to him that he can perform on each object individually. Naturally, other objects may (and most likely will) be present in the development of the system, however, they will be hidden from the user.
Conclusion
In some cases, when creating objects of a conceptual model, the principle of the structural organization of multi-level systems is used. Thus, the developer achieves easier design of a user-friendly object. Such a construction helps to control the implementation of the system, and also facilitates the creation of application command structures. That is, the developer can determine which actions are applicable to various objects, which of them can be generalized. This makes it possible to make the command structure the most accessible to the user. That is, instead of studying a huge number of object-orientation commands, you just need to master the generalized ones. Analyzing all of the above, we can say that the conceptual model is just a scheme that determines the properties of the elements of the planned structure and its cause-effect relationships necessary to achieve the design goal.