Information Systems Area

Because of the difficulties often experienced in formulating and understanding large scale models, much current research is directed towards developing systems to support the construction and understanding of management science models. This paper discusses six different methods for representing mathematical programming models during the formulation phase of the modeling process. The approaches discussed in the paper include algebra, three different kinds of graphical schemes, a database-oriented approach and Structured Modeling. We emphasize representations that have graphical elements suitable for incorporation in the interface to a modeling system. The different methods are compared using a common example and conclusions are drawn as to their suitability for various modeling tasks and situations