Research commentary: Information systems and conceptual modeling - A research agenda

Within the information systems field, the task of conceptual modeling involves building a representation of selected phenomena in some domain. High-quality conceptual-modeling work is important because it facilitates early detection and correction of system development errors. It also plays an increasingly important role in activities like business process reengineering and documentation of best-practice data and process models in enterprise resource planning systems. Yet little research has been undertaken on many aspects of conceptual modeling. In this paper, we propose a framework to motivate research that addresses the following fundamental question: How can we model the world to better facilitate our developing, implementing, using, and maintaining more valuable information systems? The framework comprises four elements: conceptual-modeling grammars, conceptual-modeling methods, conceptual-modeling scripts, and conceptual-modeling contexts. We provide examples of the types of research that have already been undertaken on each element and illustrate research opportunities that exist.

Principles versus artifacts in computer science curriculum design

Computer Science is a subject which has difficulty in marketing itself. Further, pinning down a standard curriculum is difficult-there are many preferences which are hard to accommodate. This paper argues the case that part of the problem is the fact that, unlike more established disciplines, the subject does not clearly distinguish the study of principles from the study of artifacts. This point was raised in Curriculum 2001 discussions, and debate needs to start in good time for the next curriculum standard. This paper provides a starting point for debate, by outlining a process by which principles and artifacts may be separated, and presents a sample curriculum to illustrate the possibilities. This sample curriculum has some positive points, though these positive points are incidental to the need to start debating the issue. Other models, with a less rigorous ordering of principles before artifacts, would still gain from making it clearer whether a specific concept was fundamental, or a property of a specific technology. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.