Role of Conceptual Models in the Design and Use of Information Systems

摘要

Three different roles of conceptual models (CM's) in the design and use of information systems (IS's) are investigated. The representative role of a CM is that it is an abstract representation of the universe of discourse (UoD) of the IS; as such it prescribes the structure and behavior of a database (DB) containing a representation of the UoD. A second, normative role of a CM is that it contains prescriptions for the behavior of entities in the UoD. If these prescriptions are implemented in a DB, the DB is used to eliminate possible behaviors of UoD entities. A third role of CM's emerges when a computer is viewed as a symbol-manipulating machine capable of performing speech acts like commanding and promising. A symbol-manipulating machine is capable of uttering sentences (usually in written form), which take on a certain meaning assigned to them by social convention (just as it is a convention that a traffic light tells us to stop when it is red). These conventions are stored in a CM known to the people at whom the speech act is directed. A CM playing this role is called institutional. These three roles are analyzed, using some results from analytic philosophy, and placed in the context of IS design and use.