Guest editorial to the special issue on MODELS 2010

Abstract

Welcome to this special issue of Software and Systems Modeling devoted to selected papers of MODELS 2010. The MODELS series of conferences is the premier venue for exchange of innovative ideas and practical experience focusing on a very important new technical discipline: modeldriven software and systems engineering. The expansion of this discipline is a direct consequence of the increasing significance and success of model-based methods in practice. Numerous efforts resulted in the invention of concepts, languages and tools for the definition, analysis, transformation, and verification of domain-specific modeling languages and general-purpose modeling language standards, as well as their use for software and systems engineering. MODELS 2010, the 13th edition of the conference series took place in Oslo, Norway, October 3–8, 2010, along with numerous satellite workshops, symposia and tutorials. The conference was fortunate to have three prominent keynote speakers: Ole Lehrmann Madsen from Aarhus University, Denmark, Edward A. Lee from U.C. Berkeley, USA and Pamela Zave from AT&T Laboratories, USA. To provide a broader forum for reporting on scientific progress, as well as on experience stemming from practical applications of model-based methods, the 2010 conference accepted submissions in two distinct tracks: Foundations and Applications. The primary objective of the first track was to present new research results dedicated to advancing the state-of-the-art of the discipline, whereas the second aimed to provide a realistic and verifiable picture of the current state-of-the-practice of model-based engineering, so that the