Thesis full text (PDF) - Politecnico di Milano

2. Background
2.1 Model Driven Architecture (MDA)
2.1.1 Review of MDA
The MDA defines an approach to IT system specification that separates the specification of
system functionality from the specification of the implementation of that functionality on a
specific technology platform. To this end, the MDA defines an architecture for models that
provides a set of guidelines for structuring specifications expressed as models.
The MDA is a new way of writing specifications, based on a platform-independent model. A
complete MDA specification consists of a definitive platform-independent base UML model,
plus one or more platform-specific models and interface definition sets, each describing how the
base model is implemented on a different middleware platform.
The MDA approach and the standards that support it allow the same model specifying system
functionality to be realized on multiple platforms through auxiliary mapping standards, or
through point mappings to specific platforms, and allow different applications to be integrated by
explicitly relating their models, enabling integration and interoperability and supporting system
evolution as platform technologies come and go.
2.1.2 Basic concepts
Systems notions
Two different system notions exist: the teleological and the ontological system notion [4]. The
teleological system notion is about the function and the (external) behavior of a system. This
notion can be visualized with a black-box model. The teleological system notion is adequate for
the purpose of using or controlling a system. The ontological system notion, on the other side,
can be used for building or changing a system. It is about the construction and operation of a
system and can be modeled with a white-box model.
10