Framework for the interoperability of software engineering metamodels

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.A model, represented as a concrete artefact, is an abstraction of reality according to a certain conceptualization. A model can support communication and analysis about relevant aspects of the underlying domain. A model must be expressed in some language and such languages are defined using metamodels. Many metamodels have been proposed and used in the software engineering literature. Some define modelling languages that are general in nature but the literature of modelling is dominated by domain-specific modelling languages or metamodels. Most of these metamodels have been developed independently from each other and any shared concepts are only accidental. Widespread adoption of these metamodels is hindered by differences between metamodels' concepts. Using more than one modelling language during software development requires some sort of interoperability between the metamodels of those modelling languages. This interoperability is also required to allow mappings between models developed using different modelling languages. These metamodels are not static in nature and are continuously evolving. This evolution has increased their size and complexity over time. This complexity increases when more than one metamodel is used during software development. Interoperability of a pair of metamodels can reduce their joint size and complexity (elaborated in detail in Chapter 7). The need for interoperability between metamodels is also raised by many research communities. In this thesis, we have developed a framework that can be used for metamodel interoperability. The framework compares metamodel elements based on their syntax, semantics and structure. The semantics of metamodel elements are further investigated for linguistic and ontological semantics. Since terms such as interoperability, bridging, merging and mapping have all been used, often loosely, with reference to metamodel compatibility, we will define these terms under the generic term harmonization. Metamodels share some similarities with other domains, e.g. ontologies and schemas. In this thesis, we have also explored the techniques available in these domains that might be useful for metamodel interoperability. We have applied our framework to different metamodels and have shown how metamodels can be used in an interoperable fashion. The results achieved are analysed and we have shown how interoperability of metamodels can reduce their size and their joint complexity, hence making them easier to understand and use

Model Driven Tool Interoperability in Practice

International audienceModel Driven Engineering (MDE) advocates the use of models, metamodels and model transformations to revisit some of the classical operations in software engineering. MDE has been mostly used with success in forward and reverse engineering (for software development and better maintenance, respectively). Supporting system interoperability is a third important area of applicability for MDE. The particular case of tool interoperability is currently receiving a lot of interest. In this paper, we describe some experiments in this area that have been performed in the context of open source modeling efforts. Taking stock of these achievements, we propose a general framework where various tools are associated to implicit or explicit metamodels. One of the interesting properties of such an organization is that it allows designers starting some software engineering activity with an informal light-weight tool and carrying it out later on in a more complete or formal context. We analyze such situations and discuss the advantages of using MDE to build a general tool interoperability framework

A methodological proposal and tool support for the HL7 standards compliance in the development of health information systems

Health information systems are increasingly complex, and their development is presented as a challenge for software development companies offering quality, maintainable and interoperable products. HL7 (Health level 7) International, an international non-profit organization, defines and maintains standards related to health information systems. However, the modelling languages proposed by HL7 are far removed from standard languages and widely known by software engineers. In these lines, NDT is a software development methodology that has a support tool called NDT-Suite and is based, on the one hand, on the paradigm of model-driven engineering and, on the other hand, in UML that is a widely recognized standard language. This paper proposes an extension of the NDT methodology called MoDHE (Model Driven Health Engineering) to offer software engineers a methodology capable of modelling health information systems conforming to HL7 using UML domain models

Towards a pivotal-based approach for business process alignment.

This article focuses on business process engineering, especially on alignment between business analysis and implementation. Through a business process management approach, different transformations interfere with process models in order to make them executable. To keep the consistency of process model from business model to IT model, we propose a pivotal metamodel-centric methodology. It aims at keeping or giving all requisite structural and semantic data needed to perform such transformations without loss of information. Through this we can ensure the alignment between business and IT. This article describes the concept of pivotal metamodel and proposes a methodology using such an approach. In addition, we present an example and the resulting benefits

Generic Model Refactorings

Many modeling languages share some common concepts and principles. For example, Java, MOF, and UML share some aspects of the concepts\ud of classes, methods, attributes, and inheritance. However, model\ud transformations such as refactorings specified for a given language\ud cannot be readily reused for another language because their related\ud metamodels may be structurally different. Our aim is to enable a\ud flexible reuse of model transformations across various metamodels.\ud Thus, in this paper, we present an approach allowing the specification\ud of generic model transformations, in particular refactorings, so\ud that they can be applied to different metamodels. Our approach relies\ud on two mechanisms: (1) an adaptation based mainly on the weaving\ud of aspects; (2) the notion of model typing, an extension of object\ud typing in the model-oriented context. We validated our approach by\ud performing some experiments that consisted of specifying three well\ud known refactorings (Encapsulate Field, Move Method, and Pull Up Method)\ud and applying each of them onto three different metamodels (Java,\ud MOF, and UML)

WSCDL to WSBPEL: A Case Study of ATL-based Transformation

The ATLAS Transformation Language (ATL) is a hybrid transformation language that combines declarative and imperative programming elements and provides means to define model transformations. Most transformations using ATL reported in the literature show a simplified use of ATL, and often involve a single transformation. However, in more realistic situations, multiple transformations may be necessary, especially in case the original input/output models are not represented in the metametamodeling representation expected by the transformation engine. In this paper, we discuss a model transformation from service choreography (WSCDL) to service orchestration (WSBPEL), which cannot be performed in a single ATL transformation due to the mismatch between the concrete XML syntax of these languages and the metametamodeling representation expected by the ATL transformation engine. This requires auxiliary transformations in which this mismatch is resolved. In principle, the required auxiliary transformations can be implemented using XSLT or a general-purpose programming language like Java. However, in our case study, we evaluate the use of ATL to perform these transformations. We exploit ATL by leveraging the ATL's XML\ud injection and the XML extraction mechanisms to perform the overall transformation in terms of a transformation chain

Model-driven transformation and validation of adaptive educational hypermedia using CAVIAr

Authoring of Adaptive Educational Hypermedia is a complex activity requiring the combination of a range of design and validation techniques.We demonstrate how Adaptive Educational Hypermedia can be transformed into CAVIAr courseware validation models allowing for its validation. The model-based representation and analysis of different concerns and model-based mappings and transformations are key contributors to this integrated solution. We illustrate the benefits of Model Driven Engineering methodologies that allow for interoperability between CAVIAr and a well known Adaptive Educational Hypermedia framework. By allowing for the validation of Adaptive Educational Hypermedia, the course creator limits the risk of pedagogical problems in migrating to Adaptive Educational Hypermedia from static courseware

MDWEnet: a practical approach to achieving interoperability of model-driven web engineering methods

Current model-driven Web Engineering approaches (such as OO-H, UWE or WebML) provide a set of methods and supporting tools for a systematic design and development of Web applications. Each method addresses different concerns using separate models (content, navigation, presentation, business logic, etc.), and provide model compilers that produce most of the logic and Web pages of the application from these models. However, these proposals also have some limitations, especially for exchanging models or representing further modeling concerns, such as architectural styles, technology independence, or distribution. A possible solution to these issues is provided by making model-driven Web Engineering proposals interoperate, being able to complement each other, and to exchange models between the different tools. MDWEnet is a recent initiative started by a small group of researchers working on model-driven Web Engineering (MDWE). Its goal is to improve current practices and tools for the model-driven development of Web applications for better interoperability. The proposal is based on the strengths of current model-driven Web Engineering methods, and the existing experience and knowledge in the field. This paper presents the background, motivation, scope, and objectives of MDWEnet. Furthermore, it reports on the MDWEnet results and achievements so far, and its future plan of actions

Towards an interoperable metamodel suite: size assessment as one input

In recent years, many metamodels have been introduced in the software engi- neering literature and standards. These metamodels vary in their focus across, for example, process, product, organizational and measurement aspects of software development and have typically been developed independently of each other with shared concepts being only accidental. There is thus an increasing concern in the standards communities that possible conicts of structure and semantics between these various metamodels will hinder their widespread adoption. The complexity of these metamodels has also increased significantly and is another barrier in their appreciation. This complexity is compounded when more than one metamodel is used in the lifecycle of a software project. Therefore there is a need to have interoperable metamodels. As a first step towards engendering interoperability and/or possible mergers between metamodels, we examine the size and complexity of various meta- models. To do this, we have used the Rossi and Brinkkemper metrics-based approach to evaluate the size and complexity of several standard metamodels including UML 2.3, BPMN 2.0, ODM, SMM and OSM. The size and complexity of these metamodels is also compared with the previous version of UML, BPMN and Activity diagrams. The comparatively large sizes of BPMN 2.0 and UML 2.3 suggest that future integration with these metamodels might be more difficult than with the other metamodels under study (especially ODM, SSM and OSM)