Conceptual models have been developed for many domains and application types. Within each discipline, the mode and purpose of conveying the design is slightly different. For example, in the computing disciplines, the concept ual models are comprised of constr uct s that enable the domain expert and software engineer to represe nt an application with notations that per mit understa n ding of the application domain and at the same time facilitate the mapping from this concept ualization to the code that implemen t s it. Clear specification of the comput ational model along with the objects, structures, and rules is essential. In the engineering domain statistical and mathe m a tical models are used to permit concise and precise represen ta tion of the application to enable accurate analysis of the characteristics of the objects being modeled as well as an analysis of their perfor m a nce. In the social sciences models utilize diagra m m a tic and verbal notations and attem p t to describe the processes that effectively explain and predict huma n individual and group behaviors. The constr uc ts used are not necessarily tied to compu ta tional or data driven constructs. In this paper we describe a patter n that describes an effective means of operating within a multidisciplinary group to develop a model for a comm o n software prototype develop me n t goal The purpose is to provide a model integration patter n or technique that assists multidisciplinary teams to develop clear, precise and correct software design. Our particular example is the developme n t of a simulation tool to be used by social scientists and security experts to analyze the evacuation of buildings under emergency and non -emergency situations. The team is made up of engineers, compute r scientists and social scientists.
Related Research:Architects and software engineers have used patter ns to describe reoccurring problem s and possible standar d solutions for the design and manage me n t of buildings and software code. The first oft cited example of patter n definition is in the architectural domain as put forward by Christop her Alexander's (Alexander, et. al., 1977). In his book he points out that there are many patter ns describing best practices and good designs that can be comm u nicated to others for reuse. The benefit of these patter ns is that once capture d and described with a set of problems for which they provide solutions, future designers and manager s need not "re-invent the wheel". They are efficient, elegant and pleasing solutions that can be reused by the architect. Compute r scientists had already begun to archive standar d algorith m s, many of which are the founda tions of moder n comput er science education (Knuth, 1971). Following Christop he r's example for the description and archival of software architecture s, Gamma and co-authors described a set of frequen tly used patter ns that combined data structur e as well as algorith mic infor mation. Recently patter ns for software develop m e nt and manage me n t have also bee...
