Model-driven Software Engineering Approach Research Articles

Code Generator Development to Transform IFML (Interaction Flow Modelling Language) into a React-based User Interface

Model-Driven Software Engineering (MDSE) is a software development approach that uses the Model to be the main actor of the development. MDSE can be applied to User Interface (UI) Development so that a model for the UI can be built, and then a transformation can be made to turn it into a running application. In this research, we develop UI Generator to support UI Development with the MDSE approach. This UI Generator can also support UI Development in Software Product Line Engineering (SPLE) paradigm. The UI is modeled with Interaction Flow Modeling Language (IFML) diagram. Then The IFML diagram is transformed into React-Based UI by the UI Generator. The UI Generator is developed with Acceleo on Eclipse IDE to transform IFML into React Code with the transformation rules defined in this research. The UI generator is also enriched with display settings and static page management to address user customization needs. The experimental results show that the UI Generator can generate a functional website. Besides evaluating the working product, UI Generator is evaluated qualitatively well based on six quality criteria as an SPLE supporting tool.

Collaborative Model-Driven Software Engineering: A Classification Framework and a Research Map

Context: Collaborative Model-Driven Software Engineering (MDSE) consists of methods and techniques where multiple stakeholders manage, collaborate, and are aware of each others' work on shared models. Objective: Collaborative MDSE is attracting research efforts from different areas, resulting in a variegated scientific body of knowledge. This study aims at identifying, classifying, and understanding existing collaborative MDSE approaches. Method: We designed and conducted a systematic mapping study. Starting from over 3,000 potentially relevant studies, we applied a rigorous selection procedure resulting in 106 selected papers, further clustered into 48 primary studies along a time span of 19 years. We rigorously defined and applied a classification framework and extracted key information from each selected study for subsequent analysis. Results: Our analysis revealed the following main fidings: (i) there is a growing scientific interest on collaborative MDSE in the last years; (ii) multi-view modeling, validation support, reuse, and branching are more rarely covered with respect to other aspects about collaborative MDSE; (iii) different primary studies focus differently on individual dimensions of collaborative MDSE (i.e., model management, collaboration, and communication); (iv) most approaches are language-specific, with a prominence of UML-based approaches; (v) few approaches support the interplay between synchronous and asynchronous collaboration. Conclusion: This study gives a solid foundation for classifying existing and future approaches for collaborative MDSE. Researchers and practitioners can use our results for identifying existing research/technical gaps to attack, better scoping their own contributions, or understanding existing ones.

Agile validation of model transformations using compound F-Alloy specifications

• We introduce Hybrid Analysis as an efficient way to validate F-Alloy specifications. • We propose an F-Alloy extension to specify compound model transformations. • We describe VBV, a domain specific validation process for model transformations. • VBV is based on compound model transformations. Model transformations play a key role in model driven software engineering approaches. Validation of model transformations is crucial for the quality assurance of software systems to be constructed. The relational logic based specification language Alloy and its accompanying tool the Alloy Analyzer have been used in the past to validate properties of model transformations. However Alloy based analysis of transformations suffers from several limitations. On one hand, it is time consuming and does not scale well. On the other hand, the reliance on Alloy, being a formal method, prevents the effective involvement of domain experts in the validation process which is crucial for pinpointing domain pertinent errors. Those limitations are even more severe when it comes to transformations whose input and/or output are themselves transformations (called compound transformations) because they are inherently more complex. To tackle the performance and scalability limitations, in previous work, we proposed an Alloy-based Domain Specific Language (DSL), called F-Alloy, that is tailored for model transformation specifications. Instead of pure analysis based validation, F-Alloy speeds up the validation of model transformations by applying a hybrid strategy that combines analysis with interpretation. In this paper, we formalize the notion of “hybrid analysis” and further extended it to also support efficient validation of compound transformations. To enable the effective involvement of domain experts in the validation process, we propose in this paper a new approach to model transformation validation, called Visualization-Based Validation (briefly VBV). Following VBV, representative instances of a to-be-validated model transformation are automatically generated by hybrid analysis and shown to domain experts for feedback in a visual notation that they are familiar with. We prescribe a process to guide the application of VBV to model transformations and illustrate it with a benchmark model transformation.

Software Engineering Approaches for Designing Knowledge based Systems: A Survey

In our daily engagement with technology we interact with software in many aspects, rendering software engineering field a very robust area with a lot of dynamism. In this paper we have comprehensively surveyed on software engineering approaches for designing knowledge based systems. First we looked at knowledge based systems in detail, then at software engineering basics, and finally match the various software engineering approaches that have been used in the field of knowledge based systems in the current research and surveys. Some of the current approaches in knowledge approaches that we surveyed include: case-based approach, software reuse approach, Model driven software engineering approaches, ontology based approach, Open metadata approach, cloud based approach, agile approach, Traditional integration approach, Automatic software generation code approach, process based approach, and the Knowledge based system approach.

Co-ordination of Multiple Metamodels, with Application to Healthcare Systems

Due to their complexity and the plethora of requirements placed upon them, healthcare systems so far have not been adequately modeled for the purpose of software development. As a result, the healthcare software suffers from high development costs and lack of flexibility. Model driven software engineering (MDSE) is an emerging methodology for software development, targeting productivity, flexibility and reliability of systems; metamodelling is at the core of most MDSE approaches. In previous work, we proposed a multi metamodelling approach that captures the complexity of these systems by using a metamodelling hierarchy, built from individually defined metamodels, each capturing different aspects of a healthcare domain, namely, user access modelling, health process modelling, process monitoring, user interface modelling and modelling of the data sources. Here, we formalize the co-ordination among metamodels, using a linguistic extension of the metamodelling hierarchy. This linguistic extension is an added metalevel which models the integration of two or more different aspects of the system. We focus on two features essential to the co-ordination of healthcare metamodels, namely the integration of process and data, modelling data-aware processes, and the integration of process and user, modelling both user access as well as inheritance of user access to tasks.

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING FOR WEB SERVICES WORKFLOW SYSTEMS

Service-oriented computing (SOC) suggests that many open, network-accessible services will be available over the Internet for organizations to incorporate into their own processes. Developing new software systems by composing an organization's local services and externally-available web services is conceptually different from system development supported by traditional software engineering lifecycles. Consumer organizations typically have no control over the quality and/or consistency of the external services that they incorporate, thus top-down software development lifecycles are impractical. Software architects and designers will require agile, lightweight processes to evaluate tradeoffs in system design based on the "estimated" responsiveness of external services coupled with known performance of local services. We introduce a model-driven software engineering approach for designing systems (i.e. workflows of web services) under these circumstances and a corresponding simulation-based evaluation tool.