A formal foundation for transformations in model driven engineering

In the MDE (Model Driven Engineering) paradigm, models are thought to be the primary conductors in all software development aspects. A PIM (Platform Independent Model) is transformed into one or more PSMs (Platform Specific Model); hence, a specific PSM is generated for each specific technological platform. In turn these output models may be transformed into another set of models until finally the output consists of program code that can be executed. Model transformation is the MDE engine; models are no longer mere contemplative entities and become productive entities. The MDE initiative covers a broad spectrum of research areas: modeling languages, definition of languages for model transformation, construction of support tools for the different tasks involved, application of concepts to development methods and specific domains, etc. Currently, some of these aspects are well-based, and are being applied with some success; however, other aspects are still undergoing their definition process. In this context, it is necessary to make every effort to convert MDE and its concepts and related techniques into a coherent proposal, based on open standards, and supported by mature tools and techniques. Model transformations require specific languages for their definition; these languages should have a formal base, for example, a metamodel that supports them and allows for an automated treatment.Es revisión de: http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/4145Resumen de la tesis presentada por la autora para obtener el título de Doctor en Ciencias Informáticas (UNLP, 2007).Facultad de Informátic

A formal foundation for transformations in model driven engineering

In the MDE (Model Driven Engineering) paradigm, models are thought to be the primary conductors in all software development aspects. A PIM (Platform Independent Model) is transformed into one or more PSMs (Platform Specific Model); hence, a specific PSM is generated for each specific technological platform. In turn these output models may be transformed into another set of models until finally the output consists of program code that can be executed. Model transformation is the MDE engine; models are no longer mere contemplative entities and become productive entities. The MDE initiative covers a broad spectrum of research areas: modeling languages, definition of languages for model transformation, construction of support tools for the different tasks involved, application of concepts to development methods and specific domains, etc. Currently, some of these aspects are well-based, and are being applied with some success; however, other aspects are still undergoing their definition process. In this context, it is necessary to make every effort to convert MDE and its concepts and related techniques into a coherent proposal, based on open standards, and supported by mature tools and techniques. Model transformations require specific languages for their definition; these languages should have a formal base, for example, a metamodel that supports them and allows for an automated treatment.Es revisión de: http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/4145Resumen de la tesis presentada por la autora para obtener el título de Doctor en Ciencias Informáticas (UNLP, 2007).Facultad de Informátic

A Model-Driven Architecture based Evolution Method and Its Application in An Electronic Learning System

Software products have been racing against aging problem for most of their lifecycles, and evolution is the most effective and efficient solution to this problem. Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) is a new technique for software product for evolving development and reengineering methods. The main steps for MDA are to establish models in different levels and phases, therefore to solve the challenges of requirement and technology change. However, there is only a standard established by Object Management Group (OMG) but without a formal method and approach. Presently, MDA is widely researched in both industrial and research areas, however, there is still without a smooth approach to realise it especially in electronic learning (e-learning) system due to the following reasons: (1) models’ transformations are hard to realise because of lack of tools, (2) most of existing mature research results are working for business and government services but not education area, and (3) most of existing model-driven researches are based on Model-Driven Development (MDD) but not MDA because of OMG standard’s preciseness. Hence, it is worth to investigate an MDA-based method and approach to improve the existing software development approach for e-learning system. Due to the features of MDA actuality, a MDA-based evolution method and approach is proposed in this thesis. The fundamental theories of this research are OMG’s MDA standard and education pedagogical knowledge. Unified Modelling Language (UML) and Unified Modelling Language Profile are hired to represent the information of software system from different aspects. This study can be divided into three main parts: MDA-based evolution method and approach research, Platform-Independent Model (PIM) to Platform-Specific Model (PSM) transformation development, and MDA-based electronic learning system evolution. Top-down approach is explored to develop models for e-learning system. A transformation approach is developed to generate Computation Independent Model (CIM), Platform-Independent Model (PIM), and Platform-Specific Model (PSM); while a set of transformation rules are defined following MDA standard to support PSM’ s generation. In addition, proposed method is applied in an e-learning system as a case study with the prototype rules support. In the end, conclusions are drawn based on analysis and further research directions are discussed as well. The kernel contributions are the proposed transformation rules and its application in electronic learning system

Designing secure data warehouses by using MDA and QVT

The Data Warehouse (DW) design is based on multidimensional (MD) modeling which structures information into facts and dimensions. Due to the confidentiality of the data that it stores, it is crucial to specify security and audit measures from the early stages of design and to enforce them throughout the lifecycle. Moreover, the standard framework for software development, Model Driven Architecture (MDA), allows us to define transformations between models by proposing Query/View/Transformations (QVT). This proposal permits the definition of formal, elegant and unequivocal transformations between Platform Independent Models (PIM) and Platform Specific Models (PSM). This paper introduces a new framework for the design of secure DWs based on MDA and QVT, which covers all the design phases (conceptual, logical and physical) and specifies security measures in all of them. We first define two metamodels with which to represent security and audit measures at the conceptual and logical levels. We then go on to define a transformation between these models through which to obtain the traceability of the security rules from the early stages of development to the final implementation. Finally, in order to show the benefits of our proposal, it is applied to a case study.This work has been partially supported by the METASIGN project (TIN2004-00779) from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, of the Regional Government of Valencia, and by the QUASIMODO and MISTICO projects of the Regional Science and Technology Ministry of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain)

Costs and benefits of multiple levels of models in MDA development

In Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) development, models of a distributed application are carefully defined so as to remain stable in face of changes in technology platforms. As we have argued previously in [1, 3], models in MDA can be organized into different levels of platformindependence. In this paper, we analyze the costs and benefits of maintaining separate levels of models with transformations between these levels. We argue that the number of levels of models and the degree of automation of transformations between these levels depend on a number of design goals to be balanced, including those of maximizing the efficiency of the design process and maximizing the reusability of models and transformations

On the Notion of Abstract Platform in MDA Development

Although platform-independence is a central property in MDA models, the study of platform-independence has been largely overlooked in MDA. As a consequence, there is a lack of guidelines to select abstraction criteria and modelling concepts for platform-independent design. In addition, there is little methodological support to distinguish between platform-independent and platform-specific concerns, which could be detrimental to the beneficial exploitation of the PIM-PSM separation-of-concerns adopted by MDA. This work is an attempt towards clarifying the notion of platform-independent modelling in MDA development. We argue that each level of platform-independence must be accompanied by the identification of an abstract platform. An abstract platform is determined by the platform characteristics that are relevant for applications at a certain level of platform-independence, and must be established by balancing various design goals. We present some methodological principles for abstract platform design, which forms a basis for defining requirements for design languages intended to support platform-independent design. Since our methodological framework is based on the notion of abstract platform, we pay particular attention to the definition of abstract platforms and the language requirements to specify abstract platforms. We discuss how the concept of abstract platform relates to UML

Requirements traceability in model-driven development: Applying model and transformation conformance

The variety of design artifacts (models) produced in a model-driven design process results in an intricate relationship between requirements and the various models. This paper proposes a methodological framework that simplifies management of this relationship, which helps in assessing the quality of models, realizations and transformation specifications. Our framework is a basis for understanding requirements traceability in model-driven development, as well as for the design of tools that support requirements traceability in model-driven development processes. We propose a notion of conformance between application models which reduces the effort needed for assessment activities. We discuss how this notion of conformance can be integrated with model transformations

Abstract Platform and Transformations for Model-Driven Service-Oriented Development

In this paper, we discuss the use of abstract platforms and transformation for designing applications according to the principles of the service-oriented architecture. We illustrate our approach by discussing the use of the service discovery pattern at a platform-independent design level. We show how a trader service can be specified at a high-level of abstraction and incorporated in an abstract platform for service-oriented development. Designers can then build platform-independent models of applications by composing application parts with this abstract platform. Application parts can use the trader service to publish and discover service offers. We discuss how the abstract platform can be realized into two target platforms, namely Web Services (with UDDI) and CORBA (with the OMG trader)

Semantic model-driven development of web service architectures.

Building service-based architectures has become a major area of interest since the advent of Web services. Modelling these architectures is a central activity. Model-driven development is a recent approach to developing software systems based on the idea of making models the central artefacts for design representation, analysis, and code generation. We propose an ontology-based engineering methodology for semantic model-driven composition and transformation of Web service architectures. Ontology technology as a logic-based knowledge representation and reasoning framework can provide answers to the needs of sharable and reusable semantic models and descriptions needed for service engineering. Based on modelling, composition and code generation techniques for service architectures, our approach provides a methodological framework for ontology-based semantic service architecture