Evaluation framework for the design of an engineering model

According to both cybernetics and general system theory, a subject develops and uses an adequate model of a system to widen his/her knowledge about the system. Models are then the interface between a subject and a real-world system to solve a problem and to construct knowledge. Hence, evaluating these models is crucial to ensure the quality of the constructed knowledge. We propose here an evaluation framework to assess complex models based on the intrinsic properties of these models as well as the properties of the derived knowledge. A series of 40 evaluation criteria are proposed under the four systemic axes: ontology, functioning, evolution, and teleology. Through a case study, we show how our evaluation model allows both presenting a given model and assessing it.