Next Up

Models help us manage complexity by providing abstractions that we can use for reasoning and communication. There is a conceptual meta-model behind every model. When we know what that meta-model is, we can use it for analysis and communication, and to help us design the architecture.

In this chapter, you learned where models come from and how to describe them, but that doesn’t make it any easier to individuate concepts or identify the rules within a meta-model. In the next chapter, you’ll learn how to facilitate a group workshop called a design studio that harnesses the power of the group to explore the design space and arrive at good candidate models.