Model-Driven Evolution of Software Architectures - Software and ...
Model-Driven Evolution of Software Architectures - Software and ...
Model-Driven Evolution of Software Architectures - Software and ...
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8.8. ConcludingRemarks 187<br />
WhereweproposetouseMOFforthedefinition<strong>of</strong>DSMLs,Dash<strong>of</strong>yetal.<br />
[2005]useXMLforthedefinition<strong>of</strong>ADLs. Itprovidesgenerichigh-level<br />
XMLschemasthatcanbeextendedfordevelopment<strong>of</strong>ADLs.Theyleverage<br />
theavailabletoolsupportforXML. AsweuseMOF,weleverageavailable<br />
UML<strong>and</strong>MOFtoolsaswell.Thisenables,forinstance,thespecification<strong>of</strong><br />
transformationsonahigherlevel<strong>of</strong>abstractionbyamodeltransformation<br />
language.<br />
8.8 ConcludingRemarks<br />
InthischapterweproposedtocombineDSMLmodels<strong>and</strong>UMLdiagrams<br />
formodel-drivens<strong>of</strong>twaredocumentation.WhereMDEapproachestypically<br />
aimtouseDSMLmodelstoautomaticallycreatesourcecode,ourapproach<br />
complementsMDEwiththe(partial)creation<strong>of</strong>documentation.<br />
Themainmotivationforourapproachistheobservationthatalthough<br />
DSMLshaveclearadvantagesovergeneral-purposemodellinglanguages,<br />
itrequiresconsiderableefforttodevelopgraphicaleditors<strong>and</strong>representations.Inparticular,thedefinition<strong>and</strong>implementation<strong>of</strong>theirconcretesyntaxornotationismuchmoreinvolvedthanthat<strong>of</strong>theirabstractsyntax,whichissupportedbytechnologies,suchasMOF<strong>and</strong>EMF.<br />
Thisisa<br />
problem,asgraphicalrepresentations<strong>of</strong>modelsareanessentialpart<strong>of</strong><br />
s<strong>of</strong>twaredocumentation.<br />
Ourapproachusesmodeltransformationsto(automatically)mapDSML<br />
modelstoUMLmodels.TheseUMLmodelsareeasilyvisualisedasUMLdiagramsusingavailablemodellingtools.WhiletheDSMLmodelscanbeused<br />
forcodegeneration<strong>and</strong>otherautomateds<strong>of</strong>twareengineeringtasks,these<br />
diagramsareusedinthedocumentation.Assuch,ourapproachallowsto<br />
optimisebothcompleteness(bytheADLmodel)<strong>and</strong>legibility(bytheUML<br />
diagram)<strong>of</strong>architecturedescriptions. Furthermore,part<strong>of</strong>thedocumentationcanbeautomaticallyupdatedasthes<strong>of</strong>twaresystemevolves.<br />
Application<strong>of</strong>ourapproachrequiresthedefinition<strong>of</strong>aDSMLmetamodel<br />
usingMOF<strong>and</strong>mappingstoUMLusingmodeltransformations.Thisneeds<br />
tobedoneonceforeachDSMLused.Furthermore,ameanstocreateassociatedmodelsisrequired.Wegaveseveralexamplesforthis.Comparedto<br />
thedevelopment<strong>of</strong>acompletegraphicaleditorforthedefinedmetamodel,<br />
ourapproachismorelightweight.<br />
Weevaluatedourapproachinthedomain<strong>of</strong>s<strong>of</strong>twarearchitecture,for<br />
whichwedefinedMDAV. Itrefinestheindustryst<strong>and</strong>ardforarchitecture<br />
documentation(IEEEStd1471-2000)bylinkingarchitecturalviews(documentation)toarchitecturalmodelsusingmodeltransformations<strong>and</strong>UML.<br />
MDAViseasilygeneralisedtootherdomains.Asanexample,wediscussed<br />
anindustrialapplicationinthedomain<strong>of</strong>controlsystems.