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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198 Chapter9. Conclusion<br />
sufficienttoolsupportforthedefinition<strong>of</strong>DSMLs<strong>and</strong>thewide-spreaduse<br />
<strong>of</strong>UMLareforcompanies<strong>of</strong>tensufficientreasonsforusingUML.<br />
<strong>Evolution</strong>Transformation Exceptforevaluation, oursolutionsforthes<strong>of</strong>twareevolutionstaskswereatleastpartlyautomatedbyspecifyingthem<br />
asmodeltransformationsintheAtlasTransformationLanguage[Jouault<br />
<strong>and</strong>Kurtev,2005](ATL).Inoursolutionfortheconformancecheckingtasks<br />
inChapter6,wehadtwosourcemodels.Ingeneral,wespecifiedthedifferentsteps<strong>of</strong>anevolutiontaskinseparatemodeltransformations.Typically,<br />
multiple<strong>of</strong>suchtransformationsarerequired.<br />
NowthatMDEapproachesthatinvolvethedefinition<strong>and</strong>application<br />
<strong>of</strong>modeltransformationsgetmoreinuse,companiesmightwanttoreconsidertheiruse<strong>of</strong>UML.Inourresearchweexperiencedthattheuse<strong>of</strong>UML<br />
resultsincomplicateddefinitions<strong>of</strong>modeltransformations. Thereasons<br />
forthisaretheaforementionedsize<strong>of</strong>theUMLmetamodel,aswellasits<br />
complexity<strong>and</strong>thefactthatmostUMLmodellingtoolsonlypartiallyimplementtheUMLspecificationor,evenworse,incorrectly.Theformerrelatesto<br />
thetrade-<strong>of</strong>fweidentifiedbetweenthenumber<strong>of</strong>sourcemodelrestrictions<br />
involvedinthenormalisationprocedure<strong>and</strong>thecomplexity<strong>of</strong>subsequent<br />
modeltransformations.<br />
Becausethecurrentstate<strong>of</strong>modellinginindustryissuchthatlanguagesasUMLareonlyusedinformally<strong>and</strong>free-formbox-<strong>and</strong>-linediagramsarealso<strong>of</strong>tenused,theapplication<strong>of</strong>model-drivenapproachesinindustrialcontextstypicallyrequiresthedefinition<strong>of</strong>metamodels.Ofcourse,transformationrulesalsoneedtobespecified.Theextenttowhichtheeffortthatthisrequiresisjustifieddependsontheparticularcontext.<br />
As<br />
discussedaboveinthecase<strong>of</strong>productlinesthereturnoninvestmentfor<br />
thiseffortisincreased. Here,theuse<strong>of</strong>st<strong>and</strong>ardsformodelling,metamodelling,<strong>and</strong>modeltransformations,<strong>of</strong>fersaverystrongbenefit.<br />
They<br />
enable,forinstance,thecreation<strong>of</strong>repositoriestosharetheseMDEartefactsamongdifferentprojects,productlines,<strong>and</strong>companies.<br />
Infact,we<br />
contributedthemodeltransformationswedefinedinChapter5forthe<br />
generation<strong>of</strong>astatemodelfromaset<strong>of</strong>scenariostosucharepository 1 .<br />
Inothercases,wereusedmetamodels(e.g.,metamodelsforDOT<strong>and</strong>XML)<br />
<strong>and</strong>transformations(e.g.,DOTtotext)availablefromrepositoriesourselves<br />
aswell.<br />
Generation Thefinal(code)generationstepiswell-studiedintheMDEliterature.Forthatreason,wedecidednott<strong>of</strong>ocusonthisstepinthisthesis,directingourattentiontothenormalisation<strong>and</strong>transformationstepsinstead.Nevertheless,aftertheexecution<strong>of</strong>theevolutiontransformation(s),<br />
1 http://www.eclipse.org/gmt/atl/atlTransformations(June2007)