Defining quality aspects for conceptual models

The notion of quality for information system models and other conceptual models is not well understood, and in most literature only lists of useful properties have been provided. However, the recent framework of Lindland et al. has tried to take a more systematic approach, defining the notions of syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic quality of models, and distinguishing between quality goals and the means to achieve them. Here, this framework is extended by discussing the six semiotic layers of communication identified by FRISCO. Definitions are provided for physical, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and social quality, respectively, and to the extent possible, metrics are provided for the defined quality goals. In addition the related areas of language and knowledge quality are discussed briefly.