1. A method for facilitating development, by a user, of a model describing a condition of an industrial asset, comprising: defining a first output parameter of the model, the first output parameter describing the condition of the industrial asset, comprising: associating, in response to input from the user, a first variable with the first output parameter, the first variable associated with a first set of data and the associating performed without the user identifying a first location where the first set of data is stored; and defining a first argument type that specifies how to compute the first output parameter based upon the first variable.