Structuring modeling knowledge for collaborative environments

We explore how a collection of models and related modeling knowledge could be made available over an organizational Intranet. The objective is to create an environment that will enable sharing and reuse of models and will promote collaborative work on models. Because of their widespread use in organizations, we focus on spreadsheet models to illustrate our concepts. We begin by discussing the various kinds of knowledge about models that should be stored in this knowledge base and how such knowledge could be captured and stored on a corporate Intranet. Next, we describe how one could use Structured Modeling (SM) as the framework for organizing the knowledge contained in the spreadsheet models per se. We propose capturing the model schema graphically using a generic structure diagram. A spreadsheet consistent with the model schema would be generated automatically. The individual who is building the spreadsheet model would be asked to supply details (data and functional relationships). He or she would be free to modify the physical appearance of the spreadsheet in any way that did not violate the relationships shown in the diagram. Finally, we describe the architecture of a system that would store, retrieve, and distribute the models and modeling knowledge to users. This description includes a discussion about the distribution of the functionality between the client, the server and the middle layers. We also provide some references to existing tools that could be used to capture the various types of knowledge that we have identified.