A Cognitive Perspective on How Experts Develop Conceptual Models in Complex Domains

摘要

Conceptual models are important in understanding the domain which is to be reflected in the information systems. Development of such models involves experts in conceptual modeling techniques (ISDK experts) and experts in the domain application (ISAK experts). This paper focuses on understanding how these two types of experts interact and develop conceptual models jointly. Using an exploratory study, it was identified that in the early phase of development of conceptual models, the experts focus on understanding concepts of the domains that they are not familiar with. Later, when the experts had shared information on the concepts of the domains then they focus on developing the conceptual model. The study also indicates that the groups of experts that have high shared information are most likely to create high quality conceptual models.