CM-quality: A pattern-based method and tool for conceptual modeling evaluation and improvement

Abstract

Conceptual models serve as the blueprints of information systems and their quality plays a decisive role in the success of the end system. It has been witnessed that majority of the IS change-requests result due to deficient functionalities in the information systems. Therefore, a good analysis and design method should ensure that conceptual models are correct and complete, as they are the communicating mediator between the users and the development team. Our approach evaluates the conceptual models on multiple levels of granularity in addition to providing the corrective actions or transformations for improvement. We propose quality patterns to help the non-expert users in evaluating their models with respect to their quality goal. This paper also demonstrates a software utility (CM-Quality) that implements the proposed evaluation approach. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.