Modelling the World …
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to improve it through software. In strive for rigour of science and relevance to engineering.
Latest posts:
IT-Artefacts in Technical and Social Contexts
Epistemic foundations of Engineering, Göran Goldkuhl, Interfaces
The Beauty of Theories and Wittgenstein's Grief
Science as artform, Jiri … Continue reading
Artefacts of logic Intention
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Software engineering, as a discipline, could benefit from a more rigorous grounding in Philosophy, e.g., by referring to the concept of "computational artefact" [T]:
Logic Machines
Let us think of a toaster simply as a machine in which you put in a slice of fluffy bread, push down the lever and … Continue reading
The Killer Application of Software Modelling
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So, you have built a gorgeous model of your software requirements or architecture? Now what to do with it? Many people look for benefits by automating certain aspects of modelling, like checking or transformation. Although this is an intriguing area with huge potential, IMHO the real killer … Continue reading
A simple relational Model
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Let's recapture some modelling basics:
What does a diagram like (Some Dia) say, in terms of logic?
Lets call the "->" relation R, obviously there are two elements where one is R-related to the other, we express this with two variables x and y, as shown in figure (a), by
(1) x R … Continue reading
Categories of semantic Models by Stachowiak
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In addition to former excerpts of Herbert Stachowiak's 1973 book "Allgemeine Modelltheorie" (General Model Theory) here are some brief examples from the part on semiological (semological) classification of semantic models (chapter 2.3.2.3).
Semantic vs non-semantic Models
Prior to the subsequent … Continue reading
Software Requirements Analysis: From the Art of Tidying Up to the Art of Abstraction
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Requirements analysis is more than just tidying up, it’s about understanding the complexity of structures. An explanation inspired by the art of Ursus Wehrli:
Is Requirements Analysis just a kind of Tidying Up?
Recently I discussed with some project responsibles, the option to use an issue … Continue reading
Craftsman or Engineer?
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A brief word on a practical software engineering issue:
A lot has been written on the differences between Craftsman and Engineer. Recently I came across a simple example by Hofstadter & Sander, that nicely shows the basic difference in thinking. We start with a little … Continue reading
Reflections on Abstractions: Subsumptions and Omissions
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Abstraction Awareness is about deeper understanding of abstraction, a concept so basic to human thinking. Subsequently we provide a simple visualisation of some basic concepts.
In addition to the recent posting Abstractive and Functional Mappings we provide a simple visualisation. There we … Continue reading
Reflections on Abstractions: The Use Case trade-off
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Loosely collecting examples of abstractions on finite relational structures:
Relational World
In the posting Adjacent Rooms we had an abstraction as in figure (abstraction by 'is related'), a mapping with the structural unsatisfactory property to be non-unique on the model-side, e.g. the '2' in … Continue reading
Reflections on Abstractions: Adjacent Rooms
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Loosely collecting examples of abstractions on finite relational structures:
Relational World
Figure (abstraction by ‘is related’) shows an abstraction by subsuming directly connected nodes in the original into a single node in the model. An edge in the model indicates a common element of its … Continue reading
Examples of Preterition and Abundance in Modelling
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In addition to the earlier posting Stachowiak on Preterition and Abundance in Modelling here are some examples of Preterition and Abundance (also see here for all postings on Stachowiak):
Is this a black and white picture? Is this a colour image of a black/ white arrangement or a black/ white … Continue reading
Reflections on Abstractions in Relational Structures. The very basic Setting.
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Abstraction Awareness is about deeper understanding of abstraction, a concept so basic to human thinking. Subsequently abstraction is discussed by the means of basic Graph Theory and Formal Concept Analysis.
A single unary relation R(x), can simply classify e.g. Naturals in evens and odds. This … Continue reading
Reflections on Abstractions: Correctness and Completeness
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Abstraction Awareness is about deeper understanding of abstraction, a concept so basic to human thinking. Subsequently, in strive for rigour, an earlier post on quality properties of models is compared to basic concepts of mathematical logic.
1. Correct and Complete, simply put
The former … Continue reading
Reflections on Abstractions: Cases vs Models
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Abstraction Awareness is about deeper understanding of abstraction, a concept so basic to human thinking. Subsequently abstraction is discussed by the means of basic Finite Model Theory.
All finite relational structures can uniquely be described in First Order Logic (FO) up to isomorphy. This is … Continue reading
General Model Theory by Stachowiak
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In his 1973 book "Allgemeine Modelltheorie" (General Model Theory) Herbert Stachowiak describes the fundamental properties that make a Model. Unfortunately this is still only available in german language, so I thought why not try a translation of the essential bits:
Fundamental Model … Continue reading
Lecture Notes on Model Thinking I
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Some lecture notes/ scribble on Model Thinking by Scott E. Page. Lecture Intro, Part 2: "Intelligent Citizens of the World":
"George Box: 'essentially all models are wrong, but some are useful'"
|=: Agree! Just a little everyday-obervation: it's funny how often people use right/ wrong in the … Continue reading
Are your Requirements complete?
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No Analyst will ever can tell if the requirements are complete, however at least completeness can be approached by systematic analysis. The idea goes roughly like this:
Say you should tell all the Integers between 0 and 11, how would you approach that?
Bad way: "6, 3, 2, 1, 8, 6, 5 - so, … Continue reading
Why finiteness counts
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Becoming aware of Finite Model Theory. Part 1 of n.
You arrive at a hotel, looking for a room. Unfortunately all rooms are occupied. Fortunately the hotel has countably infinite many rooms. So they move the guest of room 1 to room 2, guest of room 2 to room 3 etc so you can check in to room … Continue reading
Artefacts in Technical and Social Contexts
The other day, I was reading "G. Goldkuhl (2013) The IT Artefact: An ensemble of the social and the technical? – A rejoinder". Here's what I've learned:
Social Artefacts
Goldkuhl points out the non-physical effects that physical artefacts might have:
"Even if artefacts in these theories … Continue reading
The Beauty of Theories and Wittgenstein’s Grief
Some brief thoughts, inspired by 'Theories as Artworks' in Jiri Benovsky (2021) The Limits of Art:
Scientific theories have the capacity to cause passion, or said and judged to be beautiful (or not). They can be subject to aesthetic judgements, have the capacity to trigger aesthetic … Continue reading
Computational Artefacts and Software Requirements
Software engineering, as a discipline, could benefit from a more rigorous grounding in epistemology/ ontology, e.g., by referring to the concept of "computational artefact":
Introducing the Computational Artefact
As we have learned from Kroes [K] a technical artefact (TA) is based on the duality … Continue reading
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