03 December, 2009

Actionable models

Because wording is important: it is the way to communicate a clear message. I have found to be useful to use the wording “computable models” to communicate those kind of precise models that can be used to drive software generation, that can be processed in order for example to be transformed, stored, searched. The message to drive is that there are type of models that are semantically rich.
A weak model is one that has been drawn with MSPaint or Powerpoint, even if drawn with a correct notation it's value is very limited because a software program can not 'decode' it, can not extract the semantics, its value is clear (and even partially) from a human being.
This is the effect I'm trying to deliver with the wording “computable model”. But I realize that this is not enough, a model drawn with PowerPoint is also computable because it can be transformed in pdf or in Open Office Impress, a more useful way to drive the message can be “actionable model”.
In this way we deliver a more efficient message, a model can be target of an action or drive actions, can perform something.

This goes beyond the property of being 'simply' computable: it's not a picture of button in a console, in a button that can be operated to deliver an action or perform a function.