Information Systems Development via Model Transformations

Abstract

Many present systems can be developed by a sequence of transformations from the source specification to the final implementation. An interesting question is whether we can support such a sequence of transformations by some formal apparatus that enables to verify succeeding steps of development, and finally also the whole development process. As an example, we use the transformation of a definition of the set of autonomous agents by classical workflow models and then transform them into a set of Petri nets. Such transformation would support development of software systems, whose specification is based on classical workflow models, but the implementation is based on Petri nets. Each part of the designed system is translated from workflow model into Petri nets, and interpreted by the special Petri Nets Virtual Machines, which are installed on all nodes of the system.