Focused Conceptualisation: Framing Questioning and Answering in Model-Oriented Dialogue Games

This paper reports on a next step in a line o f research taking the perspective that modelling as an activity is a ‘constrained conversation’. We focus on concrete communication situations in context o f (enterprise) modelling sessions, with special attention to the involvement o f ‘novice modellers’. We present some theoretical notions that are helpful in understanding why modelling performed by/with novice modellers can usually be best broken down in sub-tasks, and how such decomposed tasks can be analysed and structured to match the limited skills o f (novice) modellers. The generic aspects presented are then linked to generic types o f questions and answers that are both drivers and constraints for the ‘dialogue games’ played in conversationsfor-modelling. We also present and illustrate an instrument for analysis, the ‘Focused Conceptualisation’ (FoCon), which can help identify, evaluate and create dialogue games for model-oriented communication situations; we discuss three working examples o f the use o f FoCons.