Metamodeling in EIA/CDIF - Meta-Metamodel and Metamodels

This article introduces the EIA/CDIF set of standards for the modeling of information systems and its exchange among computer-aided software tools of different vendors. It lays out the meta-metamodel and the standardized metamodels which are fully depicted in a hierarchical layout and annotated with the unique identifiers of all the standardized modeling concepts. The article also stresses the fact that EIA/CDIF has been used as the baseline in the creation of an international standard, the ISO/CDIF set of models, an ongoing project

A Taxonomy of Metamodel Hierarchies

In the context of software engineering and model-driven development in particular, metamodeling gains more and more importance. So far, no classifying study of theoretical metamodeling concepts and hierarchy design options has been conducted in order to establish a comprehensive set of interrelated design variables, i.e. a coherent design space. A well-designed metamodeling hierarchy is essential to avoid problems not easily noticeable, like ambiguous classification and the replication of concepts. This study aims at exploring the theoretical foundation and providing a taxonomy or a design space for constructing tailor-made metamodel hierarchies for specific problems areas and domains

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)

Model Federation in toolchains

In this paper we introduce the toolchain topic as a federation of models based on an abstraction of dif ferents tool definitions. We consider the toolchain in the context of embedded systems, in particular the co-design which implies a co-engineering approach with many tools. Our main goal is to define a tool integration model to carry out an abstraction of several data formats and for a do main model as a reference vocabulary. This model gathers the concepts for managing the development process artif acts and the roles attributed to these artifacts over th e process. We have experimented this approach during the europ een ARTEMIS iFEST project over the OSLC layer (Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration)

Consistency Modeling in a Multi-Model Architecture : Integrate and Celebrate Diversity

Central to Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) is seeing models as objects that can be handled and organized into metamodel stacks and multi-model architectures. This work contributes with a unique way of doing consistency modeling where the involved models are explicitly organized in a multi-model architecture; a general model for creating multi-model architectures that allows semantics to be attached is defined and applied; explicit attachment of semantics is demonstrated by attaching Java classes that implement different instantiation semantics in order to realize the consistency modeling and the automatic generation of consistency data. The kind of consistency addressed concerns relations between data residing in legacy databases defined by different schemas. The consistency modeling is meant to solve the problem of exposing inconsistencies by relating the data. The consistency modeling combines in a practical way visual modeling and logic (OCL). The approach is not limited to exposing inconsistencies, but may also be used to derive more general information given one or more data sets. The consistency is modeled by defining a consistency model that relates elements of two given legacy models. The consistency model is expressed in a language specially designed for consistency modeling. The language allows definition of classes, associations and invariants expressed in OCL. The interpretation of the language is special: Given one conforming data set for each of the legacy models, the consistency model may then be automatically instantiated to consistency data that tells if the data sets are consistent or not. The invariants are used to decide what instances to generate when making the consistency data. The amount of consistency data to create is finite and limited by the given data sets. The consistency model is instantiated until no more elements can be added without breaking some invariant or multiplicity. The consistency data is presented as a model which can be investigated by the user

Um compilador para um sistema de gerenciamento de metadados baseado em MOF

Orientador : Manuel de Jesus MendesDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Eletrica e de ComputaçãoMestradoEngenharia de ComputaçãoMestre em Engenharia Elétric

Integration and Test of MOF/UML-based Domain-specific Modeling Languages

In model-driven development (MDD), domain-specific modeling languages (DSMLs) are used as tailor-made software languages targeting dedicated application domains. Due to the narrow domain coverage of DSMLs, demands to integrate their individual functionality into a consolidated DSML arise (e.g., developing a software product combining two or more pre-existing DSMLs). However, in order to realize the benefits of integrated DSMLs, it must be ensured that the integrated DSML is correctly implemented and behaves as specified. To support the integration and the test of DSMLs, this thesis presents an approach targeting the Meta Object Facility (MOF) and the Unified Modeling Language (UML)- a metamodeling infrastructure frequently employed for the MDD of software systems. The integration of DSMLs is based on a rewriting technique for model-to-text (M2T) transformations. This method allows for the reuse as well as for the automatic refactoring of M2T transformation templates to fix important syntactical mismatches between templates and the integrated DSML. To test an integrated DSML, scenarios are used to define domain requirements on an abstract level (via structured text descriptions). In a subsequent step, executable scenario tests are derived from the requirements-level scenarios. These executable scenario specifications are then employed to test the integrated DSML for compliance with corresponding domain requirements. Empirical evaluations of the approach (case studies, controlled experiment) demonstrate its successful application, collect evidence for its usefulness, and quantify its benefits. The integrated proof-of-concept implementations build on the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF), making use of and extending well-known Eclipse-based projects. All accompanying developments are placed into the public domain as free/libre open source software. Within the framework of this thesis, research results were originally published as individual contributions (workshop, conference, and journal articles). All research contributions are results of applying a design science research approach. (author's abstract

Meta-Modellierung in EIA/CDIF

Die vorliegende Arbeit setzt sich folgende Ziele: - erstmals den seit 1987 entwickelten EIA/CDIF-Standard systematisch und umfassend in zusammenhängender Form darzustellen, mit entsprechenden Quellen zu verknüpfen und damit einer wissenschaftlichen Diskussion zuzuführen, - die Detailliertheit der Darstellung der EIA/CDIF-Standards so zu wählen, daß wissenschaftliche Einrichtungen und Unternehmen imstande sind, EIA/CDIF-Meta-Modelle selbständig zu erstellen beziehungsweise zu evaluieren, - erstmals das hypothetische „Integrierte EIA/CDIF-Meta-Modell“ auf Basis der per 1. Jänner 1998 standardisierten EIA/CDIF-Meta-Modelle zu erstellen und im Rahmen dieser Arbeit zu dokumentieren; - erstmals Auswertungen über sämtliche bis 1. Jänner 1998 standardisierte EIA/CDIF-Meta-Modelle so aufzubereiten, daß sie einerseits Einsichten in die Struktur geben und andererseits auch für weitere Arbeiten und Auswertungen weiterverwendbar sind, - erstmals ein EIA/CDIF-konformes Meta-Modell zu definieren, das demonstrieren soll, wie man strukturelle Informationen auf der Meta-Modellebene ohne Änderung am Meta-Meta-Modell erfassen und auswerten kann, - Spezifikationen des EIA/CDIF-Standards für die Verteilung von EIA/CDIFMeta-Modelldaten und Modelldaten mit Hilfe von OMG’s CORBA beziehungsweise der OMG IDL so einzuarbeiten, daß sie im Kontext der entsprechenden Modellierungsschichten dargestellt und verstanden werden können, - erstmals Spezifikationen für relationale Datenbankverwaltungssysteme für die Abbildung des EIA/CDIF-Meta-Meta-Modells zu entwerfen und öffentlich zu dokumentieren, - erstmals Spezifikationen für die objektorientierte Programmiersprache Object Rexx für die Abbildung des EIA/CDIF-Meta-Meta-Modells zu geben, um damit die Repräsentation der Konzepte direkt in Form von Klassenhierarchien und den zu den Klassen gehörenden Attributmethoden zu ermöglichen

A Platform Independent Game Technology Model for Model Driven Serious Games Development

Game‑based learning (GBL) combines pedagogy and interactive entertainment to create a virtual learning environment in an effort to motivate and regain the interest of a new generation of ‘digital native’ learners. However, this approach is impeded by the limited availability of suitable ‘serious’ games and high‑level design tools to enable domain experts to develop or customise serious games. Model Driven Engineering (MDE) goes some way to provide the techniques required to generate a wide variety of interoperable serious games software solutions whilst encapsulating and shielding the technicality of the full software development process. In this paper, we present our Game Technology Model (GTM) which models serious game software in a manner independent of any hardware or operating platform specifications for use in our Model Driven Serious Game Development Framework

A Model-Driven Framework to Support Games Development: An Application to Serious Games

Model Driven Engineering (MDE) is a software development approach which focuses on the creation of models to represent a domain with the aim of automatically generating software artefact using a set of software tools. This approach enables practitioners to produce a variation of software in by reusing the concepts in the domain model without worrying about the technical intricacies of software development. Therefore, this approach can help to increases productivity and it makes software design easier for the practitioners. The application of this approach into games development domain presents an interesting proposition and could help to simplify production of computer games.Computer games are interactive entertainment software designed and developed to engage users to participate in goal-directed play. Many find computer gaming to be persuasive and engaging, and they believe that through the application of game design and game technology in non-entertainment domains can create a positive impact. Computer games designed primarily for non-entertainment purpose are generally known as serious games. The development of games software, in no relation to the intended purpose of it, is technically complex and it requires specialist skills and knowledge. This is the major barrier that hinders domain experts who intend to apply computer gaming into their respective domains. Much research is already underway to address this challenge, whereby many of which have chosen to use readily available commercial-off-the-shelf games while others have attempted to develop serious games in-house or collaboratively with industry expertise. However, these approaches present issues including appropriateness of the serious game content and its activities, reliability of serious games developed and the financial cost involved. The MDE approach promises new hopes to the domain experts, especially to those with little or no technical knowledge who intend produce their own computer games. Using this approach, the technical aspects of games development can be hidden from the domain experts through the automated generation of software artefact. This simplifies the production of computer games and could provide the necessary support to help non-technical domain experts to realise their vision on serious gaming.This thesis investigates the development of a model-driven approach and technologies to aid non-technical domain experts in computer games production. It presents a novel model-driven games development framework designed to aid non-technical domain experts in producing computer games. A prototype based on the model-driven games development framework has been implemented to demonstrate the applicability of this solution. The framework has been validated through the prototypical implementations and these have been evaluated. A case study has been conducted to present a use-case scenario and to examine if this approach can help non-technical domain experts in producing computer games and also to find out if it would lower the barrier towards adoption of game-based learning as an alternative teaching and learning approach.The work in this thesis contributes to the area of software engineering in games. The contributions made in this research includes (1) a blueprint for model-driven engineering for games development, (2) a reusable formalised approach to document computer game design and (3) a model of game software that is independent of implementation platform