: We show how an alternative approach to document-oriented specification can ease the system design process. By identifying the modeling concepts needed for a complete system specification in an underlying conceptual model a specification can be interpreted as one single well-formed information complex avoiding inconsistencies as found in document oriented approaches. Besides a more intuitive development and treatment of specifications, an immediate benefit of a design process based on a conceptual model is the possibility to define specification modules that can be used as building blocks to assemble complex specifications.