Dealing with software model quality in practice: Experience in a research project

Although past research has resulted in different means to deal with software model quality, creation of adequate software models remains challenging. Any modelling effort must be carefully analysed and planned before it starts, and definition or adoption of modelling guidelines is usually necessary. In addition, the amount of publications addressing model quality in practice is low, and the knowledge about others' experience regarding model quality is limited. This paper reports on our experience in dealing with software model quality in the context of a project between industry and academia. Such a project corresponds to a large-scale research project in which modelling has been used both as part of the necessary work for executing the project and for creating project results. We present how we have dealt with model quality in requirements modelling and in conceptual model specification, as well as a set of lessons learned. The insights provided can help both researchers and practitioners when having to deal with software model quality.