Requirements Engineering in Model-Transformation Development: An Interview-Based Study
Model Transformations (MT) are central building blocks of Model Driven Engineering (MDE). The size and complexity of model transformations grows as they see more wide-spread use in industry. As a result, systematic approaches to the development of high-qu
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stract. Model Transformations (MT) are central building blocks of Model Driven Engineering (MDE). The size and complexity of model transformations grows as they see more wide-spread use in industry. As a result, systematic approaches to the development of high-quality and highly reliable model transformations become increasingly important. However, because little is known about the context in which model transformations are developed, it is very difficult to know what would be required from such systematic approaches. This paper provides some initial results and analysis of an interview-based study of requirements engineering (RE) in MT developments. We have interviewed industry experts in MT development, with the goal of understanding the contexts and ways in which transformations are developed and how their requirements are established. The types of stakeholders of transformations were identified, as well as their role in the transformation development. We also discovered a possible differentiation amongst the development of model transformation projects and general software development projects.
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Introduction
Model transformations (MTs) are central to model-driven engineering (MDE) [10]. They can be used for a range of purposes, including to improve the quality of models, to refactor models, to migrate or translate models from one representation to another, and to generate code or other artifacts from models [6]. Model transformations either transform one model into another or generate text (such as code) from a model. In any case, they aim to automate repetitive development tasks, ensuring different situations are treated in a generalised manner. As MDE is being used more intensively [4], systematic development of the transformations becomes more important [2]. However, as Selic argues [9]: “we are far from making the writing of model transformations an established and repeatable technical task”. The software engineering of model transformations has only recently been considered in a systematic way, and most of this work has focussed on design and verification rather than on requirements engineering (RE). We are interested in understanding what requirements engineering for modeltransformation development should look like. To this end, we need to understand c Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 P. Van Gorp and G. Engels (Eds.): ICMT 2016, LNCS 9765, pp. 123–137, 2016. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-42064-6 9
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the context in which model transformations are typically developed and what, if any, requirements-engineering techniques are already applied. This will help us understand how existing RE techniques might be applied (or may have to be adapted) for the context of MT development. In this paper, we report on the results of an exploratory interview-based study with five industry experts in model-transformation. We discuss the types of projects often seen in model-transformation development, their embedding in the context of other projects and organisations, the roles of stakeholder
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