Fundamental Modeling Concepts: Effective Communication of IT Systems

To develop information processing systems requires effective and efficient communication between many people. In order to understand requirements and design decisions, there is a need for a common conceptual model of the system: one that represents the architecture of the system. Communication between experts from different domains requires a common terminology and notation that is easy to apply.

This is where Fundamental Modeling Concepts (FMC) steps in. Primarily FMC is a consistent and coherent way to think and talk about information processing systems. It enables people to communicate the concepts and structures of complex information systems in an efficient way.

FMC provides you with a powerful tool for the early stages of system analysis and design. It is independent of any application domain or platform technology. It can be applied to business systems, to embedded systems or interactive systems, to systems which are implemented by programming computer systems, to wiring hardware components, to organizing the workflow between humans or to combined solutions.

Starting from a simple example, you will become familiar with the different types of system structures and their graphical representation. The authors' unique approach presents mappings between conceptual and implementation models and provides you with guidelines for the identification of system structures.