Metamodel Instance Generation: A systematic literature review

Modelling and thus metamodelling have become increasingly important in Software Engineering through the use of Model Driven Engineering. In this paper we present a systematic literature review of instance generation techniques for metamodels, i.e. the process of automatically generating models from a given metamodel. We start by presenting a set of research questions that our review is intended to answer. We then identify the main topics that are related to metamodel instance generation techniques, and use these to initiate our literature search. This search resulted in the identification of 34 key papers in the area, and each of these is reviewed here and discussed in detail. The outcome is that we are able to identify a knowledge gap in this field, and we offer suggestions as to some potential directions for future research.Comment: 25 page

Model-based specification of safety compliance needs for critical systems : A holistic generic metamodel

Abstract Context: Many critical systems must comply with safety standards as a way of providing assurance that they do not pose undue risks to people, property, or the environment. Safety compliance is a very demanding activity, as the standards can consist of hundreds of pages and practitioners typically have to show the fulfilment of thousands of safety-related criteria. Furthermore, the text of the standards can be ambiguous, inconsistent, and hard to understand, making it difficult to determine how to effectively structure and manage safety compliance information. These issues become even more challenging when a system is intended to be reused in another application domain with different applicable standards. Objective: This paper aims to resolve these issues by providing a metamodel for the specification of safety compliance needs for critical systems. Method: The metamodel is holistic and generic, and abstracts common concepts for demonstrating safety compliance from different standards and application domains. Its application results in the specification of “reference assurance frameworks” for safety-critical systems, which correspond to a model of the safety criteria of a given standard. For validating the metamodel with safety standards, parts of several standards have been modelled by both academic and industry personnel, and other standards have been analysed. We further augment this with feedback from practitioners, including feedback during a workshop. Results: The results from the validation show that the metamodel can be used to specify safety compliance needs for aerospace, automotive, avionics, defence, healthcare, machinery, maritime, oil and gas, process industry, railway, and robotics. Practitioners consider that the metamodel can meet their needs and find benefits in its use. Conclusion: The metamodel supports the specification of safety compliance needs for most critical computer-based and software-intensive systems. The resulting models can provide an effective means of structuring and managing safety compliance information

Combining System Dynamics and Multidimensional Modelling - A Metamodel Based Approach

Online analytical processing (OLAP) as a modern business intelligence (BI) concept provides support for representing vast amounts of data for supporting management‟s decisions. Though, there is no inherent support for the representation of causal structures which could provide a foundation for advanced analysis like what-if or scenario techniques. System Dynamics (SD) is an approach with a long tradition used for modelling and simulation of complex systems, which could provide a causal complement for OLAP. This paper aims at integrating OLAP and SD on a linguistic level. Therefore linguistic metamodels of the corresponding conceptual modelling languages are derived and related towards each other, creating a translational relationship between the languages

Category Theory and Model-Driven Engineering: From Formal Semantics to Design Patterns and Beyond

There is a hidden intrigue in the title. CT is one of the most abstract mathematical disciplines, sometimes nicknamed "abstract nonsense". MDE is a recent trend in software development, industrially supported by standards, tools, and the status of a new "silver bullet". Surprisingly, categorical patterns turn out to be directly applicable to mathematical modeling of structures appearing in everyday MDE practice. Model merging, transformation, synchronization, and other important model management scenarios can be seen as executions of categorical specifications. Moreover, the paper aims to elucidate a claim that relationships between CT and MDE are more complex and richer than is normally assumed for "applied mathematics". CT provides a toolbox of design patterns and structural principles of real practical value for MDE. We will present examples of how an elementary categorical arrangement of a model management scenario reveals deficiencies in the architecture of modern tools automating the scenario.Comment: In Proceedings ACCAT 2012, arXiv:1208.430

BRIDGING THE CHASM BETWEEN SOCIOTECHNICAL AND TECHNICAL VIEWS OF SYSTEMS IN ORGANIZATIONS

This paper presents a metamodel that addresses the long standing gap between technical and sociotechnical views of IT-reliant systems in organizations. The metamodel provides an integrated set of concepts that extend and clarify the work system framework and related work system concepts, thereby helping in understanding, analyzing, and designing technical and sociotechnical systems. The metamodel is a step toward an enhanced work system approach that is understandable to business professionals, is more rigorous than most current applications of work system concepts, and can be linked more directly to precise, highly detailed analysis and design approaches for IT professionals. Specification of the metamodel clarifies ambiguities in the work system framework and forms a clearer conceptual basis for tools and methods that could improve communication and collaboration between business and IT professionals. It also might be used to organize a body of knowledge for the IS field

Model Operations for Quality-Driven Multimedia Delivery

With the recent advances in distributed systems and wireless technology, users can access any information, from anywhere with any device. Multimedia delivery services are currently under development to operate in such environments. In this context, it appears essential to offer and support different levels of service according to users requirements and expectations and to work towards quality-driven delivery (QDD). Implementing QDD mechanisms leads us to consider different issues such as system components interoperability, quality information management, distributed execution of QDD activities and multi-criteria optimization. In this paper, we focus on quality information management to support QDD. We propose a model management approach to the problem and we introduce metamodel and model operations for that purpose. We use conceptual graphs formalism to develop our QDD metamodel and we show how the conceptual graph derivation mechanism can be applied to implement some fundamental model operations

Science of Digital Libraries(SciDL)

Our purpose is to ensure that people and institutions better manage information through digital libraries (DLs). Thus we address a fundamental human and social need, which is particularly urgent in the modern Information (and Knowledge) Age. Our goal is to significantly advance both the theory and state-of-theart of DLs (and other advanced information systems) - thoroughly validating our approach using highly visible testbeds. Our research objective is to leverage our formal, theory-based approach to the problems of defining, understanding, modeling, building, personalizing, and evaluating DLs. We will construct models and tools based on that theory so organizations and individuals can easily create and maintain fully functional DLs, whose components can interoperate with corresponding components of related DLs. This research should be highly meritorious intellectually. We bring together a team of senior researchers with expertise in information retrieval, human-computer interaction, scenario-based design, personalization, and componentized system development and expect to make important contributions in each of those areas. Of crucial import, however, is that we will integrate our prior research and experience to achieve breakthrough advances in the field of DLs, regarding theory, methodology, systems, and evaluation. We will extend the 5S theory, which has identified five key dimensions or onstructs underlying effective DLs: Streams, Structures, Spaces, Scenarios, and Societies. We will use that theory to describe and develop metamodels, models, and systems, which can be tailored to disciplines and/or groups, as well as personalized. We will disseminate our findings as well as provide toolkits as open source software, encouraging wide use. We will validate our work using testbeds, ensuring broad impact. We will put powerful tools into the hands of digital librarians so they may easily plan and configure tailored systems, to support an extensible set of services, including publishing, discovery, searching, browsing, recommending, and access control, handling diverse types of collections, and varied genres and classes of digital objects. With these tools, end-users will for be able to design personal DLs. Testbeds are crucial to validate scientific theories and will be thoroughly integrated into SciDL research and evaluation. We will focus on two application domains, which together should allow comprehensive validation and increase the significance of SciDL's impact on scholarly communities. One is education (through CITIDEL); the other is libraries (through DLA and OCKHAM). CITIDEL deals with content from publishers (e.g, ACM Digital Library), corporate research efforts e.g., CiteSeer), volunteer initiatives (e.g., DBLP, based on the database and logic rogramming literature), CS departments (e.g., NCSTRL, mostly technical reports), educational initiatives (e.g., Computer Science Teaching Center), and universities (e.g., theses and dissertations). DLA is a unit of the Virginia Tech library that virtually publishes scholarly communication such as faculty-edited journals and rare and unique resources including image collections and finding aids from Special Collections. The OCKHAM initiative, calling for simplicity in the library world, emphasizes a three-part solution: lightweightprotocols, component-based development, and open reference models. It provides a framework to research the deployment of the SciDL approach in libraries. Thus our choice of testbeds also will nsure that our research will have additional benefit to and impact on the fields of computing and library and information science, supporting transformations in how we learn and deal with information

The interaction type approach to relationships management

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