A Domain-Specific Language and Interactive User Interface for Model-Driven Engineering of Technology Roadmaps

Abstract

The introduction of major innovations in industry requires a collaboration across the whole supply chain. A common way to organize such a collaboration is the use of technology roadmaps, which act as an industry-wide long-term planning tool. Technology roadmaps are used to identify industry needs, estimate the availability of technological solutions, and identify the need for innovation in the future. Roadmaps are inherently both time-dependent and based on uncertain values, i.e., properties and structural components can change over time. Current approaches for model-driven engineering do not inherently support these aspects.We present a novel model-driven approach treating those aspects as first-class citizens. To address the problem of missing support for time in the context of roadmap modeling, we introduce the concepts of a common global time, time-dependent properties, and time-dependent availability. This includes requirements, properties, and the structure of the model or its components as well. These concepts result in a continuous range of various valid models over time instead of a single valid model at a certain point of time. We present concepts for an interactive graphical user interface to enable the user to efficiently interact with those models. We illustrate the application of these concepts on an industrial example of a next generation electrical fuse.