A Rigorous Approach for Metamodel Evolution

Model-Driven Development (MDD) is an initiative proposed by the Object Management Group (OMG) to model centric software development. It is based on the concepts of models, metamodels, and automatic transformations. Models and metamodels are in constant evolution. Metamodel evolution may cause conforming models to become invalid. Therefore, models must be migrated to maintain conformance to their metamodels. Metamodel evolution and model migration are typically performed manually, which is an error-prone task. In light of this, the authors propose a framework for metamodel evolution and model migration that combine an operator-based approach with refactoring and specification matching techniques. They combine classical metamodeling techniques with formal specifications to reason about transformations, metamodels, and their evolution. The authors describe foundations for MDA-based metamodel evolution that allow extending the functionality of the existing CASE tools in order to improve the MDA-based process quality.