An Information System Model

In the previous chapter, we saw that the objective of the NIAM method of information analysis is the specification of the grammar. Before taking up the question of how the grammar has to be specified, we must first get an idea of how the information exchange with the information system takes place. Therefore, in this chapter we will take a look at how an information system works in general and what its functional components are. These components and their mutual relations then form a model of an arbitrary information system. In setting up this model, we use the main principles of the NIAM method of information analysis, the conceptual principle and the 100% principle, as our starting point. One of the consequences of this is that only the conceptual aspects, and not the realization aspects, of an information system are described. That is, this model only indicates what the information system and its components must do, and not how they could be realized in practice. That is the reason we talk about a conceptual model of information systems. In fact, the conceptual model forms the specification of an arbitrary information system. During information analysis, we will assume that every information system behaves as is described by the conceptual model.