How do practitioners use conceptual modeling in practice?

Much research has been devoted over the years to investigating and advancing the techniques and tools used by analysts when they model. As opposed to what academics, software providers and their resellers promote as should be happening, the aim of this research was to determine whether practitioners still embraced conceptual modelling seriously. In addition, what are the most popular techniques and tools used for conceptual modelling? What are the major purposes for which conceptual modelling is used? The study found that the top six most frequently used modelling techniques and methods were ER diagramming, data flow diagramming, systems flowcharting, workflow modelling, RAD, and UML. Smaller organizations and more experienced modellers appear to employ greater use of the well-established structured techniques. By contrast, larger organizations seem to make greater use proportionately of the more recent object-oriented techniques such as workflow modelling and UML. However, an important contribution of this study was the identification of the factors that uniquely influence the continued-use decision of analysts, viz., communication (using diagrams) to/from stakeholders, internal knowledge (lack of) of techniques, user expectations management, understanding models integration into the business, and tool/software deficiencies. The specific factor of communication (diagrams) to/from stakeholders appears to be important across organizations irrespective of size while the specific factor of internal knowledge (lack of) of techniques seems to be more important in larger organizations than in small organizations. By contrast, communication (diagrams) to/from stakeholders and internal knowledge (lack) of techniques appear to be much more critical to novice modellers (0-3 years) than to more experienced modellers.