Search

The interdisciplinary process of space systems engineering poses challenges on the development of its on-board software. On-board software integrates components from different domains and organizations and must fulfill requirements, such as robustness, reliability, real-time capability and memory management. Model-based methods do not only help to simplify the system and give a comprehensive overview, but they also improve productivity by allowing artifacts to be generated from the model automatically. However, general-purpose modeling languages, such as Matlab Simulink, SysML, or UML, are not always adequate because of their ambiguity through their generic nature. Furthermore, sensor data handling, analysis, and processing of data in on-board software requires focus on the system’s data flow and event mechanism. To achieve this, we developed the Tasking Modeling Language (TML), a model-driven software development platform, planned to be released open source. TML incorporates a set of textual and graphical domain-specific languages (DSLs), which allow system engineers to model complex event-driven software systems in a simple way and to generate software from it. The textual DSLs in TML provide a strong-typed syntax to define data types and system components, whereas a graphical DSL enables to design the composition and data flow of the system. Type and consistency checks on this formal level help to reduce errors early on in the engineering process. The TML environment facilitates model-driven software development (MDSD) by incorporating a code generator which is capable of generating executable C++ source-code, unit tests, its build configuration and documentation. This way, the model acts as a single point of truth, and changes on the data flow or integration of new components become trivial. By default, the code generator utilizes the Tasking Framework, an open-source C++ software execution platform developed by DLR. This allows software modules to run concurrently in separate tasks, exchange data between them via channels, and to schedule the task-execution based on events, such as input data availability. TML and the Tasking Framework are based on the task channel paradigm, where tasks are bare executors of algorithms whereas channels are data containers. While TML is focused on data-driven systems, its models are designed to be extended and customized to specific mission requirements. It provides three levels of extension mechanism: firstly, new components, channel types, and parameters can be added to the model dynamically. Secondly, the code generator can be customized by extending or implementing new code templates. This enables to support new execution environments or even new programming languages. Lastly, the generated code is designed to be extended by manually written code. This combination of a modeling language, customized to data-flow oriented systems with a highly extensible artifact generation, enables effective support for development of on-board software. This paper describes the architecture of the TML in detail, explains the base technology, the methodology, and the DSLs. It evaluates the design approach of the software via case study and presents the advantages as well as the faced challenges. more...

The continuous improvement of the performance of computing units makes it possible to cope with increasingly complex tasks. This results in more complex software systems. However, the development of such highly complex systems is difficult to achieve using traditional approaches. Concepts like model-driven software development can weaken this problem in these constructive phases. However, new challenges arise for the testing of development artifacts. In order to be able to perform a real shift left of verification and validation tasks towards early phases of development, we present a semi-formal approach that enables users to execute test cases against the system under development (SUD) on the model-level. Grounded on an Integrated Model Basis which is created and maintained during development, test reports are automatically derived. This opens up a wide range of possibilities for early and targeted troubleshooting. more...

The paper presents an efficient approach to the semantic enrichment of measured sensor data in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), by bridging techniques from Model-driven Software Development (MDSD) and Semantic Web Technology (SWT). Our approach reinforces data interoperability, fostering data sharing and reuse, by utilizing SWT. Model-based and type-agnostic configuration reduces the overall effort for WSN setup and maintenance, which are traditionally complex and time-consuming tasks. The presented approach addresses the problem of large-scale WSN management through the application of SWT in WSN configuration and management without requiring expert knowledge. Additionally, we present a generic architecture and an implementation which is also supplemented by hands-on descriptions of an illustrative use case. Our experimental results demonstrate that our model-based approach provides non-intrusive semantic enrichment with sub-millisecond computational overhead, as well as partially automated configuration of WSNs. more...

Software failures that demonstrate violations of human values can result in financial losses, reputation damages and social implications. Therefore, integrating human values into software is vital to satisfy stakeholder needs. However, developing methodological approaches that allow systematic integration of human values throughout the software development life cycle is an open challenge. This paper proposes the Continual Value(s) Assessment (CVA) framework that uses extended goal and feature modeling techniques to support systematic integration, tracing and evaluation of human values in software systems. The CVA framework prescribes (i) brainstorming of value implications of system features based on conventional system artefacts and (ii) the expansion of the existing set of system features to better serve stakeholder values expectations. In a pilot study, we use an emergency alarm system for the elderly to demonstrate the feasibility of the framework. We further discuss the challenges we faced while applying the framework and present the lessons learned from the pilot study. more...

Developing high quality, reliable and on time software systems is challenging due to the increasing size and complexity of these systems. Traditional software development approaches are not suitable for dealing with such challenges, so several approaches have been introduced to increase the productivity and reusability during the software development process. Two of these approaches are Component-Based Software Engineering (CBSE) and Model-Driven Software Development (MDD) which focus on reusing pre-developed code and using models throughout the development process respectively. There are many research studies that show the benefits of using software components and model-driven approaches. However, in many cases the development process is either ad-hoc or not well-defined. This paper proposes a new software development process model that merges CBSE and MDD principles to facilitate software development. The model is successfully tested by applying it to the development of an e-learning system as an exemplar case study. more...

Software development is a complex and difficult task that requires the investment of sufficient resources and carries major risk of failure. Model Driven Engineering (MDE) focuses on creating software models and automating code generation from the models. Model Driven Software Development (MDSD) offers significantly more effective approaches. These approaches improve the way of building software. Model driven approaches partially increase developer productivity, decrease the cost of software construction, improve software reusability, and make software more maintainable. This paper investigates the methods where Model Driven Software Development is integrated with Software Product Line (SPL). This SLR has been conducted to identify 71 research works published since 2014. We have collected 18 tools, 14 techniques and 17 languages used for MDSD for SPL. We analyze which technique is suitable for SPL. We compare the techniques on the basis of features provided by these tools to understand the better-quality results. more...

The paper presents an approach to semantic mutation of state machines that specify class behavior in Model-Driven Software Development. The mutations are aimed at different variants of UML state machine behavior. Mutation testing of a target application allows to compare different semantic interpretations and verify a set of test cases. We present a notation of a process combining model-driven development with semantic mutation and semantic consequence-oriented mutations. Origin and details of the proposed mutation operators are discussed. The approach has been supported by the Framework for eXecutable UML (FXU) that creates a C# application from UML classes and state machines. The tool architecture has been reengineered in order to apply semantic mutation operators into the model-driven development process and realize testing on a set of semantic mutants. The tool and the implemented mutation operators have been verified in a case study on a status service for a social network. more...

Industry 4.0 enforces digital revolution in the manufacturing industry by introducing smart devices and knowledge bases to form intelligent manufacturing information systems. One of the goals of the digital revolution is to support an automatic production from product specification to allow faster reaction on the product changes and a lot size one production. In order to make this possible, a formal language to describe production processes is needed, together with a code generator for its models and an engine to execute the code on smart devices. In this paper we propose a research on Industry 4.0 manufacturing using a Model-Driven Software Development (MDSD) approach to model production processes, use the models to generate instructions to smart devices and human workers, and gather a feedback from them during the process execution. more...

Model-driven Software Development (MDSD) approaches struggle when modeling context-dependent and dynamic systems, as their underlying metamodels cannot capture context-dependent concepts and relations. By contrast, role-based modeling has been studied for more than 35 years as a promising paradigm to model context-dependent and dynamic systems. Although some approaches have considered the application of roles on the metamodel level, no approach employed a contextual and relational role-based metamodel as the basis of a modeling framework. To remedy this, we employ the Compartment Role Object Model (CROM) which is a contextual and relational role-based modeling language, as the underlying metamodel of a novel Role-based Modeling Framework (RMF). In particular, our framework is able to generate inter-operable Java source code that permits the programmatic creation, manipulation, and persistence of role-based models. We illustrate the applicability of RMF by modeling a small system with context-dependent concepts and relations, generating corresponding Java source code, and employing it to load, manipulate, and store role-based models. more...

The heterogeneity and complexity of Internet of Things (IoT) applications present new challenges to the software development process. Model-Driven Software Development (MDSD) is increasingly being recognized as a key paradigm in tackling many of these challenges, as evident by the emergence of a significant number of MDSD frameworks targeting IoT in the past couple of years. At the heart of IoT applications are embedded and realtime systems, a domain where model-driven development is well-established and many existing tools have a proven track record. Unfortunately, only a handful of these tools support out-of-the-box integration with the IoT. In this work, we discuss the different design and implementation decisions for enabling existing actor-oriented MDSD tools for the IoT. Moreover, we propose an integration approach based on the use of proxy actors and system interfaces. The approach offers seamless and flexible integration of external IoT devices into the user's model. We implement and evaluate our approach using the MDSD tool Papyrus for Realtime as a testbed. more...

Model Driven Software Development (MDSD) is one of the trends for software development that has been widely advertised in the last years proposing automation in the code generation from the system requirements represented in a model form. Several methods involving code generation to some degree of completeness have been proposed, however these methods usually focus on a static aspect of the system being built leaving the dynamics out of the transformation scope. In this paper authors propose an approach to generate simplified LISP code from the two-hemisphere model with the main attention to a dynamic aspect of the system. more...

Pest control is a major issue in agricultural management due to crop yield losses caused by pests. In this context, integrated pest management aims to suppress pest populations below an action threshold to minimize their impact. This paper presents the development of a web tool based on the Spanish regulations for the integrated pest management of table grapes; this provides decision support for evaluating when a particular pest action threshold has been crossed thus affecting table grape crops. The tool was built using a model-driven software development approach that enables software system generation from the problem’s knowledge model. The design of the knowledge bases which contain the system’s decision rules is also described. It is divided into knowledge bases that contain general knowledge related to the table grape crop as well as several specific knowledge bases (one per pest) containing the reasoning model that deduces the risk associated with a particular pest. The software has been designed by applying the model-driven development method thus making the system flexible, easy to evolve and adaptable whenever a new pest has to be incorporated into the software. more...

International audience; After thirty years, it is reasonably time to critically look at Model Driven Software Development (MDSD). Who may nowadays claim that MDSD has been massively adopted by the software industry? Who may show numbers demonstrating that MDSD allowed/allows massive cost savings in daily software development, but, above all, software maintenance? This paper aims at investigating executable modeling as a balanced articulation between programming and modeling. Models at run-time embody the promising generation of executable models, provided that their usages are thought and intended to cost-effective software development. To envisage this not-yet-come success, this paper emphasizes expectations from the software industry about “reactive programming”. Practically, executable modeling standards like the SCXML W3C standard or the BPMN OMG standard are relevant supports for reactive programming, but success conditions still need to be defined. more...

The domain of mobile apps encompasses a fast-changing ecosystem of platforms and vendors in which new classes of heterogeneous app-enabled devices are emerging. To digitize everyday work routines, business apps are used by many non-technical users. However, designing apps is mostly done according to traditional software development practices, and further complicated by the variability of device capabilities. To empower non-technical users to participate in the creation of supportive apps, graphical domain-specific languages can be used. Consequently, we propose the Munster App Modeling Language (MAML) to specify business apps through graphical building blocks on a high level of abstraction. In contrast to existing process modelling notations, these models can directly be transformed into apps for multiple platforms across different device classes through code generators without the need for manual programming. To evaluate the comprehensibility and usability of MAML’s DSL, two studies were performed with software developers, process modellers, and domain experts. more...

We apply an IDE for user-level process design and composition to a real-life case study: a complex workflow from an ongoing global cancer-related cachexia research project. Originally buried in a manually operated spreadsheet, the process is now fully automated and integrated into the project database, ensuring the immediate availability, consistency and reproducibility of the outcomes. Our integrated solution enables the scientists to immediately execute the processes and easily customize both processes and data model to continuously changing experimental setups. The data modeling is provided by the Dynamic Web Application framework and the process modeling functionalities by the Java Application Building Center, both following the paradigm of eXtreme Model-Driven Design for model-driven software development. more...

This paper proposes a didactic approach to teaching model-driven software development (MDSD). The main idea is to convey the underlying concepts instead of using a concrete tool or presenting a purely theoretical approach. This goal is to be achieved by the development of a simple, but fully functional code generator. The entire process chain, from graphical modeling to actual code generation, is run through twice. In a first run from back to front to present the main concepts of a code generator engine and in a second run in reverse order to add additional functionality to the generator. At the end of the course, the acquired knowledge is to be transferred and presented by means of a small project using a concrete generator tool. more...

The article considers the specifics of a model oriented approach to software development based on the usage of Model Driven Architecture (MDA), Model Driven Software Development (MDSD) and Model Driven Development (MDD) technologies. Benefits of this approach usage in the software development industry are described. The main emphasis is put on the system design, automated code generation for large systems, verification, proof of system properties and reduction of bug density. Drawbacks of the approach are also considered. The approach proposed in the article is specific for industrial software systems development. These systems are characterized by different levels of abstraction, which is used on modeling and code development phases. The approach allows to detail the model to the level of the system code, at the same time store the verified model semantics and provide the checking of the whole detailed model. Steps of translating abstract data structures (including transactions, signals and their parameters) into data structures used in detailed system implementation are presented. Also the grammar of a language for specifying rules of abstract model data structures transformation into real system detailed data structures is described. The results of applying the proposed method in the industrial technology are shown. The article is published in the authors’ wording. more...

Models are the most important core of Science, Technology and Designing. Display based ways to deal with software advancement and system building utilize technology to incorporate graphical demonstrating languages. Model driven software development is an approach of using models to automatically create the source code implementation of a software structure. The Model Driven Architecture (MDA) approach has been getting position as the Model Driven Approach of an option since its use of Unified Modeling Language(UML). The MDA solution is to produce all code of a system from models and give attention to maintaining models merely in the software development. But, due to shortage of code production tools and the UML language itself, an accurate MDA does not understand by developers. The critical proposal is to identify system functionality with a Platform Independent Model and next to convert this model into Platform Specific Models and completely generate executable source code from model. Model conversion creates the most important component of MDA approach. Generating models and source code from other models by using MDA technology tools is the key standard of MDA approach. Therefore, manual conversion is an extremely time and other resource consuming work in software development. This paper describes not only generating code from model but also generates model from code or it also describes reverse engineering(Code-Model conversion). Keywords: Model-Driven, Code Generator, Model, Software Development, UML, MDA, platform, Model Transformation. more...

This article presents the results of observations and analyses of students’ learning model-driven system development from two related courses taught at a university in Norway and at a university in the United States in 2015, and consequently, in an updated version in 2016. The motivation of this article is to understand and analyse how effective the current practice of teaching and learning modelling and model-driven software development is in university settings, and to offer some pedagogical insights and lessons learnt from teaching two different model-related graduate courses at two different universities. Empirical data of learning was collected through interviews, observations, document analysis and a survey questionnaire. The aim of these two courses is providing students with the competence of problem solving in modelling. Topics of models in these courses cover a full spectrum of modelling techniques, from business architecture models, requirements models, system and software architecture, to design models. The courses have evolved from an initial focus on modelling for analysis and design to the current focus on using executable models for software production. The result is a complete enterprise architecture modelling approach education from business architecture to software architecture to functioning software. more...

In this paper we will propose model driven software development and Security Performance Framework (SPF) Model to maintain the balance between security and performance for web applications. We propose that all security in a Trusted Operating System is not necessary. Some non-essential security checks can be skipped to increase system performance. These non essential security checks can be identified in any web application. For implementation of this Security Performance framework based trusted operating system, we propose object oriented based Code generation through forward engineering. This involves generating source code of web application from one or more Object oriented Rational Rose model. The novel integration of security engineering with model-driven software expansion approach has varied advantages. To maintain security in various applications like Ecommerce, Banking, Marketplace services, Advertising, Auctions, Comparison shopping, Mobile commerce Payment, Ticketing, Online insurance policy management, we have to use high secured operating systems. In this regard a number of trusted operating systems like Argus, Trusted Solaris, and Virtual Vault have been developed by various companies to handle the increasing need of security. Due to high security reason these operating systems are being used in defense. But still these secure operating systems have limited scope in commercial sector due to lower performance; actually this security will come at a cost. This paper analyzes UML-based software development solutions for SPF to manage the security, performance and modeling for web applications. more...

Model-driven software development is surrounded by numerous myths and misunderstandings that hamper its adoption. For long, our students were victims of these myths and considered MDSD impractical and only applied in academy. In this paper we discuss these myths and present our experience with devising an MDSD course that challenges them and motivates students to understand MDSD principles. The main contribution of this work is a set of MDSD teaching guidelines that can make the course pragmatic in the eyes of students - programmers. These guidelines introduce MDSD from the viewpoint of a programmer as a pragmatic tool for solving concrete problems in the development process. In our MDSD course we implemented the presented guidelines. The course shows several techniques and principles of model-driven development in multiple incremental iterations instead of concentrating on a single tool. At the same time we unite these techniques by using a dynamic visualisation tool that shows to the students the whole infrastructure in the big picture. The course is implemented as an iterative incremental MDSD case study. The paper concludes with a survey performed with our students that indicates positive results of the approach. more...

Bayesian networks allow for a concise graphical representation of decision makers’ knowledge on an uncertain domain. However, there are no well-defined methodologies showing how to use a Bayesian network as the core of a knowledge-based system, even less if not all the features should be supported by the knowledge model. That is to say, the software, that has to be released to customers, has also to embed functionalities not based on knowledge, concerning to the information management processes closer to the world of a classical software development projects. These components of the software application have to be built according to practices and methods of Software Engineering discipline. This chapter is conceived as a guideline about how to manage and intertwine languages and techniques related to Knowledge Engineering and Software Engineering in order to build a knowledge based system supported by Bayesian networks. more...

In model-driven software development, it is a key technology that transform from platform independent models at higher abstract level to platform specific models at a lower level. The approach to create mapping rules is profoundly impacted with the gap between the source model and the target model. By abstractly analyzing the characteristic of syntax and semantics of modeling languages, an approach to define model transformation rules is proposed on the basis of semantic consistency. Firstly, the user must construct an abstract semantic model through an in-depth analysis of target platform. Secondly, the user build mapping relations from source model to target model via abstract target semantic model. This work is based on the idea of elements in source semantic domain being reconstructed in the target semantic domain. The approach can provide an effective support for validating mapping rules between different abstract level models. JavaEE is used as a target of the transformation to interpreting the process to define mapping rules. more...

SUMMARYSoftware engineering plays a key role in state-of-the-art robotics where more effective and efficient software development solutions are needed for implementation and integration of advanced robotics capabilities. Component-based software engineering and model-driven software development are two paradigms suitable to deal with such challenges. This paper presents the analysis, design, and implementation of control software for an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). The software development stages are carried out by using a model-driven toolchain that provides support to design and build component-based software for robotics applications. A case study of a high-performance AUV control application and experimental results from a software schedulability analysis are presented. more...

The use offrameworksandcomponentshas been shown to be effective in improving software productivity and quality. However, the results in terms of reuse and standardization show a dearth of portability either of designs or of component-based implementations. This paper, which is based on themodel driven software developmentparadigm, presents an approach that separates the description of component-based applications from their possible implementations for different platforms. This separation is supported by automatic integration of the code obtained from the input models into frameworks implemented using object-oriented technology. Thus, the approach combines the benefits of modeling applications from a higher level of abstraction than objects, with the higher levels of code reuse provided by frameworks. In order to illustrate the benefits of the proposed approach, two representative case studies that use both an existing framework and an ad hoc framework, are described. Finally, our approach is compared with other alternatives in terms of the cost of software development. more...

Model-driven development is a pragmatic approach to software development that embraces domain-specific languages (DSLs), where models correspond to DSL programs. A distinguishing feature of model-driven development is that clients of a model can select from an open set of alternative semantics of the model by applying different model transformation. However, in existing model-driven frameworks, dependencies between models, model transformations, and generated code artifacts are either implicit or globally declared in build scripts, which impedes modular reasoning, separate compilation, and programmability in general.We propose the design of a new module system that incorporates models and model transformations as modules. A programmer can apply transformations in import statements, thus declaring a dependency on generated code artifacts. Our design enables modular reasoning and separate compilation by preventing hidden dependencies, and it supports mixing modeling artifacts with conventional code artifacts as well as higher-order transformations. We have formalized our design and the aforementioned properties and have validated it by an implementation and case studies that show that our module system successfully integrates model-driven development into conventional programming languages. more...

UML models can be extended with time concepts from the Modeling and Analysis of Real-Time and Embedded Systems (MARTE) profile. In the Model-Driven Software Development, elements enhanced by stereotypes corresponding to time concepts can be transformed into code and assisted by appropriate library support during an application development and execution. We discuss several issues of the MARTE time concept interpretation and realization in an MDSD approach. Selected solutions were implemented in FXU, a tool for building C# applications based on UML classes and state machines. Realization of the MARTE support was verified in case studies. more...

A steel thread is a software engineering construct that identifies the most important execution paths, including software and hardware elements, through a computer system, while meeting business objectives and demonstrating executable architecture. Steel threads are often used in the context of defining software system architecture. Although there have been references to steel threads in software engineering literature, it is hard to find clear definitions and usage of steel threads in the software industry or among the research community. This paper provides an overview of steel threads in software architecture design and development as well as presenting the contexts of steel threads. In addition, we show how to identify important scenarios and execution paths to construct steel threads and discuss the contexts under which steel threads are applicable in the software development life cycle. We also discuss the roles of steel threads in system development as well as their usability and applicability. Finally, a case study of the use of steel threads in a software system is presented. more...

Cataloged from PDF version of article. Model-driven software development (MDSD) aims to support the development and evolution of software intensive systems using the basic concepts of model, metamodel, and model transformation. In parallel with the ongoing academic research, MDSD is more and more applied in industrial practices. After being accepted both by a broad community of researchers and the industry, it is now being introduced in university courses. This article describes the experiences of three years of teaching of the graduate course Model-Driven Software Development at Bilkent University in Turkey. The lessons learned can be useful for peer educators who teach or aim to teach a similar course. © 2011 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC. more...

An emerging approach to software development is Model Driven Software Development (MDSD). It shifts the focus from source code to models, aims at cost reduction, risk mitigation, and eases the engineering of complex applications. System models can be used in the early development stages to verify certain relevant properties, such as performance, before source code is available and problems become hard and costly to solve. The present status of Model Driven Engineering (MDE) is still far from this ideal situation. A well-known problem is feedback provisioning, which arises when different solutions for the same design problem exist. An approach for feedback provisioning automation leverages model transformations, which glue together models in an MDSD setting, encapsulate the design rationale, and promote knowledge reuse and solutions otherwise available only to experienced engineers. In this article we present QVTR2, our solution to the feedback problem. QVTR2 is an extension of the QVT-Relations language with constructs to express design alternatives, their impact on non-functional metrics, and how to evaluate them and guide the engineers in the selection of the most appropriate solution. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our solution by using the QVTR2 engine to perform a modified version of the standard UML-to-RDBMS transformation in the context of a real e-commerce application, and by showing how we can guide a non-expert engineer in the selection of a solution that satisfies given performance requirements. more...

Model-driven software development (MDD) is gaining increasing acceptance, mainly because it can raise the level of abstraction and automation in software construction. MDD techniques (see the sidebar "MDD Basic Concepts"), such as metamodeling and model transformation, not only apply to the creation of new software systems but also can be used to evolve existing systems. These techniques can help reduce software evolution costs by automating many basic activities in software change processes, such as representing source code at a higher level of abstraction, providing information to analyze the impact of the changes, or automatically generating software artifacts of the evolved system. Several experiences of applying MDD in platform migration scenarios have recently been published,1'2 but they define ad hoc metamodels that hinder interoperability. more...

The project Autonomous Terrain-based Optical Navigation (ATON) at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is developing an optical navigation system for future landing missions on celestial bodies such as the moon or asteroids. Image data obtained by optical sensors can be used for autonomous determination of the spacecraft's position and attitude. Camera-in-the-loop experiments in the Testbed for Robotic Optical Navigation (TRON) laboratory and flight campaigns with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) are performed to gather flight data for further development and to test the system in a closed-loop scenario. The software modules are executed in the C++ Tasking Framework that provides the means to concurrently run the modules in separated tasks, send messages between tasks, and schedule task execution based on events. Since the project is developed in collaboration with several institutes in different domains at DLR, clearly defined and well-documented interfaces are necessary. Preventing misconceptions caused by differences between various development philosophies and standards turned out to be challenging. After the first development cycles with manual Interface Control Documents (ICD) and manual implementation of the complex interactions between modules, we switched to a model-based approach. The ATON model covers a graphical description of the modules, their parameters and communication patterns. Type and consistency checks on this formal level help to reduce errors in the system. The model enables the generation of interfaces and unified data types as well as their documentation. Furthermore, the C++ code for the exchange of data between the modules and the scheduling of the software tasks is created automatically. With this approach, changing the data flow in the system or adding additional components (e.g., a second camera) have become trivial. more...

Model-driven software development proposes model transformations as a key system design principle. However, devel-opment of model transformations can be considered as a complex task because of the semantic difference in involved models. In par-ticular, we are interested in the improvement of transformations between organizational and functional requirements models be-cause the current best approaches support only forward and semi-automatic derivation of the later from the former and do not ad-dress different workflow patterns, lack of traceability and tool support, besides not taking advantage of incremental and bidirec-tional approaches. Model synchronization techniques are pro-posed to address these challenges. In this paper, we present an analysis of the main model synchronization engines reported in the literature as well as their tool-support based on a defined set of problem-specific requirements. We present also an approach to achieve these requirements by defining a general mapping scheme and model synchronization rules to be used in the context of soft-ware development process. Initial results and further research steps on it are finally reported. more...

To compute a large amount of data in real-time systems several software components and algorithms need to be connected. The Tasking Framework enables communication between components and the event-driven execution of such components. Due to the complexity of the configuration of this framework, a graphical modelling language was developed to generate the required source code. This thesis describes the evaluation of existing graphical modeling languages and, eventually, the definition of a language specialised in the scope of event-driven communication. Multiple diagrams facilitate the description of the software from various perspectives. To implement a diagram editor, several frameworks were compared and, finally a combination of the graphical modelling framework and EuGENia was selected. The editor allows only well-formed combinations of diagram elements and provides a validation of the element parameters. To adapt the model-driven development to the project-specific requirements, the language, editor and code generator support the dynamic creation of new elements using ontological concepts. more...

Model-driven software development is surrounded by numerous myths and misunderstandings that hamper its adoption. We have designed our course of model-driven development approach with the goal to introduce it from the viewpoint of a programmer as a pragmatic tool for solving concrete problems in development process. The course covers several techniques and principles of model-driven development instead of concentrating on a single tool. To explain these techniques we use a case-study that is iteratively developed by the students during the course. In the paper we explain the structure of our case study, contents of individual iterations, and our overall experience with this approach. more...

Los Repositorios Institucionales (RI) se han consolidado en la academia, prueba de ello es el crecimiento en número de registros en los directorios existentes realizado por diferentes vías: autoarchivo por parte de autores, la incorporación de material a cargo de bibliotecarios, entre otras. En este trabajo se hace un relevamiento bibliográfico sobre el uso del enfoque de Desarrollo de Software Dirigido por Modelos (MDD) en los sistemas de RI con el propósito de establecer una relación entre ellos. El MDD es un paradigma de construcción de software que asigna a los modelos un rol central y se derivan modelos que van desde los más abstractos a los más concretos. Este paradigma, además, proporciona un marco de trabajo que permite a los interesados compartir sus puntos de vista y manipular las representaciones de las entidades del dominio. En conclusión, el seguimiento de las diferentes investigaciones relevadas y lo aquí expuesto permiten incentivar implementaciones de software para los RI. The Institutional Repositories (IR) have been consolidated into the academy, the proof of this is the growth in number of records in existing directories made by various means, such as self-archiving by authors and the incorporation of material by librarians. In this paper, a bibliographic survey about the use of the Model-Driven Software Development approach is done (MDD) in the IR systems in order to establish a relationship between them. The MDD is a paradigm for building software that assigns a central role to the models and originates models that range from the most abstract to the most concrete. This paradigm also provides a framework that allows the interested ones to share their points of view and directly manipulate the representations of the domain entities from IR. In conclusion, the monitoring of the various researches, and what is expressed here, allow to encourage the implementation of software for IR. more...

Model Driven Software Development MDSD & Domain Specific Modeling DSM are means to overcome software development challenges like increased software complexity and shortened development cycle in many domains. However, in the computer game domain it is not widely and successfully applied yet since it is not easy to understand the complex domain knowledge and use the knowledge to develop qualified DSM solutions. These difficulties can be alleviated by a deep and thorough domain analysis. In our research, we proposed an ontology to structure and accelerate the domain analysis process. To make our work more concrete, we focus on the emerging pervasive computer game genre. more...

Following the “convention over configuration” paradigm, model-driven software development (MDSD) generates code to implement the “default” behaviour that has been specified by a template separate from the input model. On the one hand, developers can produce end-products without a full understanding of the templates; on the other hand, the tacit knowledge in the templates is subtle to diagnose when a runtime software failure occurs. Therefore, there is a gap between templates and runtime adapted models. Generalising from the concrete problematic examples in MDSD processes to a model-based problem diagnosis, the chapter presents a procedure to separate the automated fixes from those runtime gaps that require human judgments. more...

Model-driven Software Development (MDSD), that is, the development practice that makes use of models to automatically generate code and software artifacts, is a practice that has been gaining much attention over the last decade and that has influenced the design of many of the mashup tools we know today. Unlike the generic term “model-based” development, which indicates the use of models in the software development process (in the extreme case, also manually drawn models), “model-driven” development indicates the use of well-defined, formal models that can be processed by a machine and used for the automatic production of artifacts that are part of the final product to be developed. With this chapter, we acknowledge the importance of MDSD for the development of mashups and provide the necessary foundations for the engineering of well-designed mashup tools by overviewing the core ingredients of model-driven development, such as models, modeling languages, metamodels, code generators, and interpreters. The goal of the chapter is to provide the reader with a concise introduction to the philosophy of MDSD, to convey the different forms of MDSD that are prominent today, and to provide the reader with a starting point for the development of an own MDSD project. more...

Model-driven software development has become a tendency in software engineering. However, Web user interfaces have the characteristics of the customization but frequently renewing, which makes traditional software development approach not suitable for the design requirements of Web pages. To solve the problems of the development of Web user interface, and focusing on the characteristics of Web application, a user interface modeling approach is proposed on the basis of interface template and XML technology. Web user interfaces are described in a direct-viewing style with graphics at the model level. The approach can provide an effective support for model-driven software development. more...

Model-driven development processes that use severalmetamodels suffer from information spread across heterogeneous instances. Models can be managed with specialized partial views that aggregate the information from heterogeneous instances and offer the approprate kind of abstraction for developers. The creation and maintenance of such views requires, however, high manual effort. In this paper, we present the usage of flexible views in the Vitruvius approach for view-centric engineering. Flexible views serve as custom, user-specific views which can be defined at development time using a textual domain-specific language. Developers can rapidly create specialized views instead of manually creating the appropriate metamodels and transformations, which is a time-consuming and error-prone task. The envisioned benefit of this approach is to improve software quality, to increase consistency between the various modeling artefacts in modeldriven software development, and to reduce the complexity for software developers. more...

The transformation of component-based architectures into object-oriented source code for different platforms is a common task in Model-Driven Software Development. Reusing parts that are common to all supported target-platforms for several model-to-text transformations is challenging. Existing approaches, like parameterized transformations and modularity concepts for transformations, make the reuse of transformations parts easier, but cannot be used to visualize design decisions that are common to all supported target-platforms. In this paper, we propose that platform-independent design decisions and their transformation results should be made explicit in an intermediate view. A single parameterized transformation should yield a common object-oriented model before individual transformations for specific platforms are executed. We argue that the additional view makes it possible to analyze decisions on how a component architecture is implemented and increases the maintainability by decoupling the involved transformations. more...

Model-driven software development (MDSD) is promising alternative in software engineering that proposes the use of models, not only as documentation artifacts, but also as first-class entities. Over the past few years, this approach has gained importance due to its proven benefits in terms of reusability and flexibility. However, the well-known problem of software evolution is also relevant in MDSD. When a model evolves, several dependent artifacts may be affected and migration would be necessary. In this paper, we present an approach that aims at effectively detecting changes in models. This approach corresponds to a first step towards the implementation of migration strategies in the context of MDSD. We validate the proposal with the classical example of evolution of model classes from UML 1.4 to UML 2.0. more...

Model-Driven Software Development (MDSD) aims to support the development and evolution of software intensive systems using the basic concepts of model, metamodel, and model transformation. In parallel with the ongoing academic research, MDSD is more and more applied in industrial practices. Like conventional non-MDSD practices, MDSD systems are also subject to changing requirements and have to cope with evolution. In this chapter, the authors provide a scenario-based approach for documenting and analyzing the impact of changes that apply to model-driven development systems. To model the composition and evolution of an MDSD system, they developed the so-called Model-Driven Software Evolution Language (MoDSEL) which is based on a megamodel for MDSD. MoDSEL includes explicit language abstractions to specify both the model elements of an MDSD system and the evolution scenarios that might apply to model elements. Based on MoDSEL specifications, an impact analysis is performed to assess the impact of evolution scenarios and the sensitivity of model elements. A case study is provided to show different kind of evolution scenarios and the required adaptations to model elements. © 2014, IGI Global. more...

Since ontology-driven software development (ODSD) is an integration of ontology technologies and model-driven software development (MDSD), it is necessary to identify and analyse technologies applied in MDSD. We define basic concepts, such as model-driven engineering, metamodelling, model transformation and technological space, and describe the state-of-the-art implementations of these concepts. more...

Modeling Software Kit (MOSKitt) is a FREE CASE tool, built on Eclipse, which is being developed by the Conselleria de Infraestructuras, Territorio y Medio Ambiente. Its main goal is to provide the necessary tools for supporting a complete Model Driven Software Development (MDSD) Process. To achieve such support MOSKitt has been endowed with a set of graphical model editors (such as BPMN, UML, User Interface Design or Data Base Design) and Model Transformations (M2M and M2T) that turn it not just as a Modeling Tool but also as a powerful environment to automate the full development process. In addition, MOSKitt's plugin architecture allows using MOSKitt as a real CAME environment. This feature enables specifying and implementing different software development processes based on the specific requirements of software company life cycles and processes. more...

Model-Driven Software Development (MDSD) techniques are increasingly used in large development environments. This paper proposes an extended executable business model named exBM to ensure system modeling for both web and C/S applications. The metamodel of exBM is presented to sufficiently describe both the structural and behavioral properties of applications. A schedule model is added to exBM in order to carry out a task that needs to occur at given moments in time. Some more expressions are provided, such as RequestSession variables, language expressions, Spring Bean variables and OGNL expressions. Finally a case study of Planning Management System of Natural Science Foundation is demonstrated how to build exBMs. more...

[EN] Real-Time Systems have some characteristics that make them particularly sensitive to architectural decisions. The use of Frameworks and Components has proven effective in improving productivity and software quality, especially when combined with Software Product Line approaches. However, the results in terms of software reuse and standardization make the lack of portability of both the design and componentbased implementations clear. This article, based on the Model- Driven Software Development paradigm, presents an approach that separates the component-based description of real-time applications from their possible implementations on different platforms. This separation is supported by the automatic integration of the code obtained from the input models into object-oriented frameworks. The article also details the architectural decisions taken in the implementation of one of such frameworks, which is used as a case study to illustrate the proposed approach. Finally, a comparison with other alternative approaches is made in terms of development cost., [ES] Los Sistemas de Tiempo-Real poseen características que los hacen particularmente sensibles a las decisiones arquitectónicas que se adopten. El uso de Frameworks y Componentes ha demostrado ser eficaz en la mejora de la productividad y calidad del software, sobre todo si se combina con enfoques de Líneas de Productos. Sin embargo, los resultados en cuanto a reutilización y estandarización dejan patente la ausencia de portabilidad tanto de los diseños como las implementaciones basadas en componentes. Este artículo, fundamentado en el Desarrollo de Software Dirigido por Modelos, presenta un enfoque que separa la descripción de aplicaciones de tiempo–real basadas en componentes de sus posibles implementaciones para distintas plataformas. Esta separación viene soportada por la integración automática del código obtenido a partir de los modelos de entrada en frameworks implementados usando tecnología orientada a objetos. Asimismo, se detallan las decisiones arquitectónicas adoptadas en la implementación de uno de estos frameworks, que se utilizará como caso de estudio para ilustrar los beneficios derivados del enfoque propuesto. Por último, se realiza una comparativa en términos de coste de desarrollo con otros enfoques alternativos., Este trabajo ha sido parcialmente financiado por los proyectos EXPLORE (CICYT ref. TIN2009-08572) y MISSION-SICUVA (Fundación Séneca ref. 15374/PI/10). more...

Los robots se han convertido en colaboradores habituales de nuestra vida diaria. Los sistemas robóticos son cada vez más complejos y, como consecuencia, crece la necesidad de aplicar nuevas técnicas ingenieriles a su proceso de desarrollo. Los enfoques tradicionales que se utilizan en el proceso de desarrollo de estos sistemas de software están alcanzando sus límites; las metodologías utilizadas actualmente y las herramientas de soporte no alcanzan para atender las necesidades de estos procesos complejos. Para fomentar la reutilización y el mantenimiento de código es esencial separar el conocimiento estable del dominio de robótica en las tecnologías de implementación, que varían rápidamente. Este artículo presenta una revisión sistemática de la utilización actual de técnicas modernas de ingeniería de software en el desarrollo de sistemas robóticos y su nivel de automatización. El objetivo del estudio es el de resumir la evidencia existente respecto a la aplicación de dichas tecnologías en el campo de los sistemas robóticos para identificar carencias en la investigación actual con el fin de sugerir áreas en futuras propuestas y proporcionar las bases para posicionar adecuadamente nuevas actividades de investigación., Robots have become collaborators in our daily life. While robotic systems become more and more complex, the need to engineer their software development grows as well. The traditional approaches used in developing these software systems are reaching their limits; currently used methodologies and tools fall short of addressing the needs of such complex software development. Separating robotics knowledge from shortcycled implementation technologies is essential to foster reuse and maintenance. This paper presents a systematic review (SLR) of the current use of modern software engineering techniques for developing robotic software systems and their actual automation level. The survey was aimed at summarizing existing evidence concerning applying such technologies to the field of robotic systems to identify any gaps in current research to suggest areas for further investigation and provide a background for positioning new research activities., Facultad de Informática more...