Formal Methods for Model-Driven Engineering

Abstract

In recent years, Model-Driven Engineering has taken a leading role in advancing a new paradigm shift in software development. Leveraging models to a first-class status is at the core of this methodology. Shifting the focus of software development from coding to modeling permits programs to transform models in order to generate other models which are amenable for a wide range of purposes, including code generation. This paper introduces a classification of model transformation approaches and languages, illustrating the characteristics of the most prominent ones. Moreover, two specific application scenarios are proposed to highlight bidirectionality and higher-order transformations in the change propagation and coupled evolution domains, respectively. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.