The objectives in workload characterization for parallel systems are t
o provide adequate representations of the programs and the associated
data and to characterize the way in which these programs are submitted
to the system (user interaction). In this work a systematic framework
and a corresponding methodology for workload modeling of parallel sys
tems is proposed. The corresponding methodology specifies the steps fo
r constructing a workload model within this framework. To illustrate t
he contribution of this approach, the framework is used as a workload
model classification scheme and the methodology is applied in a case s
tudy.