Abstraction and concretizing in information systems and problem domains : implications for system descriptions and theoretical frameworks

“Abstraction” is used both for denoting relations in the problem domain of an information system, and for denoting relations inside software and hardware of a computer. This calls for a clarification of the concept, such that frameworks of information system concepts and techniques for analysis and design can distinguish and compare different types of abstractions. Abstraction is specialized in the paper as follows: representation, classification, generalization, aggregation, and role-realization. The latter relation occurs often when modelling reality, but it is presented with erroneous direction of abstraction in the literature, and it is not supported by techniques for analysis. It is also shown that separating abstraction in analysis of problem domains from abstraction when designing information systems clarifies the direction of abstraction. Abstraction relations in a taxonomy of concepts for information systems science and the FRISCO framework are discussed, and improvements suggested. Jackson System Development, object-oriented analysis and design, and dataflow diagrams can be improved through extensions with the abstraction relations specified in this paper