Develop models of information or communications systems
Most of the output can be produced by software today.
Producing the draft is the single thing current models are best at, and it needs no integration at all: a prompt and a couple of reference documents are enough. A person still edits it and takes responsibility for what goes out.
| How automatable | Mostly automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Drafting and content production |
| Jobs that do it | 11 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Generalist agents, Builders |
| O*NET activity | Drafting, Laying Out, and Specifying Technical Devices, Parts, and Equipment (4.A.3.b.2) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 11 occupations that perform it.
- Develop conceptual, logical, or physical network designs.
- Use computer-aided design (CAD) software to prepare or evaluate network diagrams, floor plans, or site configurations for existing facilities, renovations, or new systems.
- Develop data models describing data elements and how they are used, following procedures and using pen, template, or computer software.
- Develop data models for applications, metadata tables, views or related database structures.
- Create or implement metadata processes and frameworks.
- Prepare detailed workflow charts and diagrams that describe input, output, and logical operation, and convert them into a series of instructions coded in a computer language.
- Create Web models or prototypes that include physical, interface, logical, or data models.
- Design, program, or model Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications or procedures.
- Complete models and simulations, using manual or automated tools, to analyze or predict system performance under different operating conditions.
- Maintain library of model documents, templates, or other reusable knowledge assets.
- Use network computer-aided design (CAD) software packages to optimize network designs.
- Develop data model describing data elements and their use, following procedures and using pen, template or computer software.
- Develop data warehouse process models, including sourcing, loading, transformation, and extraction.
- Develop Web site maps, application models, image templates, or page templates that meet project goals, user needs, or industry standards.
What we would actually use
One recommendation rather than a shortlist, because a shortlist is just your problem handed back. This is what we would buy for drafting and content production, and what it costs.
Drafting needs no tools, no integration and no platform. One $20 assistant and two reference documents beat any agent builder here, and every extra thing in this stack is cost with nothing behind it.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
The rest of the category
Context, not alternatives to weigh up. We name the layer rather than promise a named product does your specific task.
Generalist agents
Matched from the kind of work, not from vendor marketing. Check any of them can reach the system your records actually live in — that connection, not the model, is where these projects stall.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
11 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Business Intelligence Analysts
- Computer Network Architects
- Computer Programmers
- Computer Systems Engineers/Architects
- Data Warehousing Specialists
- Database Administrators
- Database Architects
- Geographic Information Systems Technologists and Technicians
- Telecommunications Engineering Specialists
- Web and Digital Interface Designers
- Web Developers
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Develop models of systems, processes, or products”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
| Activity | Jobs |
|---|---|
| Create models of engineering designs or methods | 14 |
| Create physical models or prototypes | 8 |
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.