Improving information architecture by documenting domain knowledge in conceptual models
: How software creation can benefit from leveraging conceptual models

  • J. (Jos) Huiting

Student thesis: Master's Thesis

Abstract

In the last decade, Agile has become the default software development process. This paper questions if parts of the traditional system analysis process could still be valuable in the context of an Agile process. This paper is focused on conceptual models which can share domain knowledge, by documenting in text or a visual representation. The aim of this thesis is to find out if a conceptual model brings value in the software development process, or that it is an avoidable effort?

The research question that was formulated: Does the usage of conceptual models with domain knowledge lead to a better understanding of the subject domain?

An experiment has been conducted which included two groups that had a limited amount of time to study a significant amount of domain knowledge. One of the groups received a conceptual model and a text to explain the domain, while the other groups just received the text.

The groups of participants that were included in the experiment did not have significant differences in properties amongst them. The result of the experiment was that there was no significant difference for either of the categories of questions, as well in the overall results.
Date of Award18 Feb 2020
Original languageEnglish
SupervisorStef Joosten (Examiner) & Rogier van de Wetering (Co-assessor)

Keywords

  • Software creation
  • conceptual models
  • domain knowledge
  • information architecture
  • shared understanding
  • knowledge gap

Master's Degree

  • Master Business Process management & IT (BPMIT)

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