Former Students' Perception of Improvement Potential of Conceptual Modeling in Practice

Several authors have pointed out a significant gap between Conceptual Modeling (CM) theory and practice. It is then natural that we try to find answers to questions such as: What is the nature of the gap? Which is the magnitude of the gap? Why does the gap exist? and What could be done to narrow the gap? In this paper, we try to answer those questions from the point of view of the former students of a Requirements Engineering and Conceptual Modeling course that have been involved in professional projects. We have surveyed over 70 former students to know how they perceive the degree to which a set of four conceptual modeling artifacts are created in practice, and how they perceive the improvement potential of the creation of those artifacts in practice. For each artifact, we asked a question on the use of the artifact, and one on the recommendation of use of the artifact. We believe that there may be an improvement opportunity of the CM practice when a significant number of respondents would have recommended the creation of an artifact in the cases in which it was not created. We try to identify the reasons why the artifacts were not created, and what would be needed to convince stakeholders and developers to create the artifact, when it is recommended to do it.