Electronic representations of conceptual models for simulation – A scoping review

ABSTRACT

Simulation facilitates the understanding and improvement of complex systems. Conceptual modelling is a key step in simulation studies. It has gained recognition because it may both increase engagement with stakeholders and decrease the time to implement a simulation. This scoping review’s objective is to highlight approaches and platforms for electronically representing models from 1999 to 2020. The motivation is that electronic representations facilitate the sharing of conceptual models. The contribution from the review to the research of conceptual modelling and simulation is to show that conceptual models are electronically represented by broadly speaking either General-Purpose or Domain-Specific Modelling Languages. There is a slight trend towards the latter in order to better deal with application specificities and improve unambiguity in model representations, though. Thus, we identify modelling approaches, platforms, and features for electronically representing conceptual models with the potential to fill the gap between conceptual models and their corresponding simulation implementations.

KEYWORDS:

• Conceptual modelling
• electronic representation
• simulation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. General diagrams, which are not necessarily associated with a formalism, such as the one found in (Somarathna, 2020).

2. Review documents are those papers classified as reviews by a searched database.

3. When the analysed document does not show a unique feature as its main result, as per the interpretation of the authors, we opt for using the term “balanced combination” to signal that the document’s approach highlights a combination of two or more of the listed features.

4. Domain-Specific Modelling Language.

5. XML/XMI can be used to support the automatic translation of a model in SysML to a model in a simulation language (McGinnis & Ustun, 2009).

6. The term “balanced combination” refers to papers in which a main modelling feature could not be determined, but rather a mix of features. Additionally, Figure 3ʹs “CM Framework” covers both framework itself and metamodel, since it is generally hard to distinguish between one another within the consulted texts – their authors tend to use these two terms as synonyms.

7. Note that there are consulted references in the table that were not cited within the text and, because of that, the list of references in this table does not coincide with the paper’s list of references.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the The University of Auckland Doctoral scholarship;