Mod4J: A Qualitative Case Study of Model-Driven Software Development

Model-driven software development (MDSD) has been on the rise over the past few years and is becoming more and more mature. However, evaluation in real-life industrial context is still scarce. In this paper, we present a case-study evaluating the applicability of a state-of-the-art MDSD tool, Mod4J, a suite of domain specific languages (DSLs) for developing administrative enterprise applications. Mod4J was used to partially rebuild an industrially representative application. This implementation was then compared to a base implementation based on elicited success criteria. Our evaluation leads to a number of recommendations to improve Mod4J. We conclude that having extension points for hand-written code is a good feature for a model driven software development environment

Formality: The Object Constraint Language and its Application in the UML Metamodel

Within the field of object technology it is becoming recognised that constraints are a good way to produce more precise and formal specifications than with diagrams alone. Evidence of this is that UML incorporates a standard constraint language called OCL (Object Constraint Language). The availability of OCL will encourage UML users to add constraints to their UML models. This paper explains OCL and demonstrates its applicability. Probably the largest application of OCL to date was its use to define the metamodel of UML, and the experiences gained in this application are discussed