Abstract
The focus of this chapter is conceptual modelling in the DEDS domain. The presentation begins with a discussion of the intended purpose of a conceptual model stressing, in particular its role as a communication platform for all stakeholders in a modelling and simulation project and, as well, its role as a specification for the simulation model (i.e. computer program) that will carry out the simulation experiments. The need for both structural and behavioural considerations in developing a conceptual model is emphasized. The notion of events necessarily plays a central role in these considerations, and considerable care is taken to provide a clear characterization of this notion because of its importance in the subsequent discussions. The chapter presents an activity-based conceptual modelling framework called ABCmod. Consistent with identified requirements, this framework is organized around entity structures (that capture structural requirements) and behavioural constructs (activities and actions that capture behavioural requirements). Attributes provide the essential constituent of the former, while events provide the essential constituent of the latter. Input and output characterization is based on concepts introduced in Chap. 3. To facilitate dialog with different segments of the stakeholder community, the ABCmod framework provides both a high level and a detailed level for the conceptual model formulation. A number of examples are included to illustrate the application and efficacy of the ABCmod framework.
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Notes
- 1.
A possible goal might be to determine how best to allocate a new part-time employee so that operational efficiency is maximized.
- 2.
These world views are examined in Chap. 5.
- 3.
- 4.
In the discussions that follow, the relevant interpretation will be context dependent.
- 5.
Set member identifiers start at 0; this reflects the common programming convention for indexing arrays.
- 6.
- 7.
The reader should observe that, to be meaningful, a discussion of events within a DEDS modelling context cannot be exclusively concerned with conditional events; i.e. at least one scheduled event needs to be included.
- 8.
Our notion of the conditional activity coincides with the perspective of an activity taken by Hills [4].
- 9.
In the procedure identifiers, ‘x’ is a place holder for either DVP or RVP, thereby indicating either a deterministic value procedure or a random variate procedure.
- 10.
There is a data modelling phase associated with the input table as described in Sect. 4.3.2.4.
- 11.
While the presentation suggests a group of male philosophers, this should not be taken literally since the group is, in fact, gender balanced.
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Birta, L.G., Arbez, G. (2013). A Conceptual Modelling Framework for DEDS. In: Modelling and Simulation. Simulation Foundations, Methods and Applications. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2783-3_4
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