Generic Conceptual Models

Several authors have pointed out that conceptual models have two main shortcomings: first, they are clearly oriented to a specific development paradigm (structured, object oriented, etc.); second, once the conceptual models have been obtained, it is really difficult to change to another development paradigm, because the model orientation to a specific development approach. This fact induces problems in the development process, because developers are encouraged to think in terms of a solution before the problem at hand is well understood, thus anticipating perhaps bad design decisions. A successful analysis task requires models be independent of any implementation issues. In concrete, models should support developers to understand the problem and its constraints before any solution be identified. This paper shows such an alternative approach to conceptual modelling.