research-article

Metamodel deprecation to manage technical debt in model co-evolution

Authors:

Ludovico Iovino,

Amleto Di Salle,

Davide Di Ruscio, and

Alfonso PierantonioAuthors Info & Claims

MODELS '20: Proceedings of the 23rd ACM/IEEE International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems: Companion Proceedings

October 2020

Article No.: 49, Pages 1 - 10

https://doi.org/10.1145/3417990.3419625

Published: 26 October 2020 Publication History

Abstract

Model-Driven Engineering helps formalize problem-domains by using metamodels. Modeling ecosystems consisting of purposely designed editors, transformations, and code generators are defined on top of the metamodels. Analogously to other software forms, metamodels can evolve---consequently, the validity of existing artifacts might be compromised. Coupled evolution provides techniques for restoring artifacts' validity in response to metamodel evolution. In this paper, we propose using deprecation in metamodeling to mitigate the difficulties in performing a class of adaptations that must be operated manually. Technical debt in co-evolution can be regarded as the outcome of procrastinating the migration of artifacts and, thus, must be reduced if not eliminated. Tool support for the adoption of deprecation and technical debt is used to demonstrate the feasibility of the methods.

References

[1]

Sanaa Alwidian and Daniel Amyot. 2019. Union Models: Support for Efficient Reasoning About Model Families Over Space and Time. In System Analysis and Modeling. Languages, Methods, and Tools for Industry 4.0, Pau Fonseca i Casas, Maria-Ribera Sancho, and Edel Sherratt (Eds.). Springer International Publishing, Cham, 200--218.

[2]

Paris Avgeriou, Philippe Kruchten, Ipek Ozkaya, and Carolyn B. Seaman. 2016. Managing Technical Debt in Software Engineering (Dagstuhl Seminar 16162). Dagstuhl Reports 6, 4 (2016), 110--138.

[3]

L. Bettini, D. Di Ruscio, L. Iovino, and A. Pierantonio. 2017. Edelta: An approach for defining and applying reusable metamodel refactorings. In MODELS (satellite events). 71--80.

[4]

L. Bettini, D. Di Ruscio, L. Iovino, and A. Pierantonio. 2019. Quality-driven detection and resolution of metamodel smells. IEEE Access 7 (2019), 16364--16376.

[5]

Thierry Bodhuin, Raffaele Esposito, Cristina Pacelli, and Maria Tortorella. 2004. Impact Analysis for Supporting the Co-Evolution of Business Processes and Supporting Software Systems. In CAiSE Workshops (2). Citeseer, 146--150.

[6]

Antonio Cicchetti, Davide Di Ruscio, Romina Eramo, and Alfonso Pierantonio. 2008. Automating co-evolution in model-driven engineering. In 2008 12th International IEEE Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference. IEEE, 222--231.

Digital Library

[7]

A. Cicchetti, D. D. Ruscio, R. Eramo, and A. Pierantonio. 2008. Automating Co-evolution in Model-Driven Engineering. In 12th International IEEE Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference (EDOC 2018). 222--231.

[8]

Davide Di Ruscio, Ludovico Iovino, and Alfonso Pierantonio. 2013. Managing the coupled evolution of metamodels and textual concrete syntax specifications. In 2013 39th Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications. IEEE, 114--121.

Digital Library

[9]

Davide Di Ruscio, Ralf Lämmel, and Alfonso Pierantonio. 2010. Automated co-evolution of GMF editor models. In International Conference on Software Language Engineering. Springer, 143--162.

[10]

Jokin García, Oscar Diaz, and Maider Azanza. 2012. Model transformation co-evolution: A semi-automatic approach. In International Conference on Software Language Engineering. Springer, 144--163.

[11]

Javier García-Munoz, Marisol García-Valls, and Julio Escribano-Barreno. 2016. Improved Metrics Handling in SonarQube for Software Quality Monitoring. In Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence, 13th International Conference, Sigeru Omatu, Ali Semalat, Grzegorz Bocewicz, Paweł Sitek, Izabela E. Nielsen, Julián A. García García, and Javier Bajo (Eds.). Springer International Publishing, Cham, 463--470.

[12]

Fáber D. Giraldo, Sergio España, Manuel A. Pineda, William J. Giraldo, and Oscar Pastor. 2014. Conciliating Model-Driven Engineering with Technical Debt Using a Quality Framework. In Information Systems Engineering in Complex Environments - CAiSE Forum 2014, Thessaloniki, Greece, June 16-20, 2014 (Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, Vol. 204), Selmin Nurcan and Elias Pimenidis (Eds.). Springer, 199--214.

[13]

Regina Hebig, Djamel Eddine Khelladi, and Reda Bendraou. 2016. Approaches to co-evolution of metamodels and models: A survey. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 43, 5 (2016), 396--414.

Digital Library

[14]

Markus Herrmannsdoerfer, Sander Vermolen, and Guido Wachsmuth. 2010. An Extensive Catalog of Operators for the Coupled Evolution of Metamodels and Models. SLE 2010, Volume 6563 of LNCS 6563, 163--182.

[15]

L. Iovino, A. Pierantonio, and Ivano Malavolta. 2012. On the impact significance of metamodel evolution in MDE. Journal of Object Technology 11 (2012), 3: 1--33.

[16]

Ludovico Iovino, Adrian Rutle, Alfonso Pierantonio, and Juri Di Rocco. 2019. Query-Based Impact Analysis of Metamodel Evolutions. In 2019 45th Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA). IEEE, 458--465.

[17]

Clemente Izurieta, Gonzalo Rojas, and Isaac Griffith. 2015. Preemptive Management of Model Driven Technical Debt for Improving Software Quality. In Proceedings of the 11th International ACM SIGSOFT Conference on Quality of Software Architectures, QoSA'15, Montreal, QC, Canada, May 4-8, 2015, Philippe Kruchten, Ipek Ozkaya, and Heiko Koziolek (Eds.). ACM, 31--36.

Digital Library

[18]

Wael Kessentini, Houari Sahraoui, and Manuel Wimmer. 2016. Automated meta-model/model co-evolution using a multi-objective optimization approach. In European Conference on Modelling Foundations and Applications. Springer, 138--155.

Digital Library

[19]

W. Kessentini, H. Sahraoui, and M. Wimmer. 2019. Automated metamodel/model co-evolution: A search-based approach. Information and Software Technology 106 (2019), 49 -- 67.

[20]

Shekoufeh Kolahdouz-Rahimi, Kevin Lano, Mohammadreza Sharbaf, Meysam Karimi, and Hessa Alfraihi. 2020. A comparison of quality flaws and technical debt in model transformation specifications. In The Journal of Systems & Software. Elsevier Inc. to appear.

[21]

Dimitrios S Kolovos and Richard F Paige. 2018. Towards a modular and flexible human-usable textual syntax for EMF models. In MODELS Workshops. 223--232.

[22]

Philippe Kruchten, Robert L. Nord, and Ipek Ozkaya. 2012. Technical Debt: From Metaphor to Theory and Practice. IEEE Softw. 29, 6 (2012), 18--21.

Digital Library

[23]

Kevin Lano, Shekoufeh Kolahdouz-Rahimi, Mohammadreza Sharbaf, and Hessa Alfraihi. 2018. Technical debt in model transformation specifications. In International Conference on Theory and Practice of Model Transformations. Springer, 127--141.

[24]

Zengyang Li, Paris Avgeriou, and Peng Liang. 2015. A systematic mapping study on technical debt and its management. Journal of Systems and Software 101 (2015), 193--220.

Digital Library

[25]

Florian Mantz, Adrian Rutle, Yngve Lamo, Alessandro Rossini, and Uwe Wolter. 2010. Towards a formal approach to metamodel evolution. In Nordic Workshop on Programming Theory.

[26]

Gonzalo Rojas, Clemente Izurieta, and Isaac Griffith. 2017. Toward Technical Debt Aware Software Modeling. In Proceedings of the XX Iberoamerican Conference on Software Engineering, Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 22-23, 2017, Oscar Pastor, Renata S. S. Guizzardi, Gladys Noemí Kaplan, Jesús García Molina, Ana Moreira, Isabel Sofia Brito, Jose Luis de la Vara, Marcela Genero, Fabio Q. B. da Silva, and Luca Cernuzzi (Eds.). Curran Associates, 99--112.

[27]

Louis Rose, Anne Etien, David Mendez, Dimitrios Kolovos, Richard Paige, and Fiona Polack. 2010. Comparing model-metamodel and transformation-metamodel coevolution. In International workshop on models and evolutions.

[28]

Louis M Rose, Dimitrios S Kolovos, Richard F Paige, and Fiona AC Polack. 2010. Model migration with epsilon flock. In International Conference on Theory and Practice of Model Transformations. Springer, 184--198.

[29]

Adrian Rutle, Ludovico Iovino, Harald König, and Zinovy Diskin. 2018. Automatic transformation co-evolution using traceability models and graph transformation. In European Conference on Modelling Foundations and Applications. Springer, 80--96.

[30]

Joao Saraiva and Alberto Silva. 2008. Evaluation of MDE Tools from a Meta-modeling Perspective. Journal of Database Management 19 (01 2008), 21--46.

[31]

D. C. Schmidt. 2006. Guest NOeditor's introduction: Model-driven engineering. Computer 39, 2 (Feb. 2006), 25--31.

Digital Library

[32]

Dennis Wagelaar, Ludovico Iovino, Davide Di Ruscio, and Alfonso Pierantonio. 2012. Translational semantics of a co-evolution specific language with the EMF transformation virtual machine. In International Conference on Theory and Practice of Model Transformations. Springer, 192--207.

Digital Library

[33]

Manuel Wimmer, Angelika Kusel, Johannes Schönböck, Werner Retschitzegger, Wieland Schwinger, and Gerti Kappel. 2010. On using inplace transformations for model co-evolution. In Proc. 2nd Int. Workshop Model Transformation with ATL, Vol. 711. Citeseer, 65--78.

Cited By

Homolka MMarchezan LAssunção WEgyed ARoychoudhury APaiva AAbreu RStorey MHierons RMadeira H(2024)"Don’t Touch my Model!" Towards Managing Model History and Versions during Metamodel EvolutionProceedings of the 2024 ACM/IEEE 44th International Conference on Software Engineering: New Ideas and Emerging Results10.1145/3639476.3639758(77-81)Online publication date: 14-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3639476.3639758
Di Ruscio DDi Salle AIovino LPierantonio A(2023)A modeling assistant to manage technical debt in coupled evolutionInformation and Software Technology10.1016/j.infsof.2022.107146156(107146)Online publication date: Apr-2023
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2022.107146

Index Terms

Metamodel deprecation to manage technical debt in model co-evolution
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software organization and properties
    1. Software system structures
      1. Software system models
        Model-driven software engineering

Recommendations

A modeling assistant to manage technical debt in coupled evolution
Abstract Context:
Model-Driven Engineering helps formalize problem domains by using metamodels. Modeling ecosystems consisting of purposely designed editors, transformations, and code generators are defined on top of the metamodels. ...
Read More
Managing the Coupled Evolution of Metamodels and Textual Concrete Syntax Specifications
SEAA '13: Proceedings of the 2013 39th Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications

In the context of Model Driven Engineering (MDE) the definition of a Domain Specific Modeling Language (DSML) consists of a set of coordinated artifacts specifying the abstract and concrete syntax of the language, and possibly further aspects related to ...
Read More
Metamodel specialization for graphical modeling language support
MODELS '16: Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE 19th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems

Most of current modeling languages are based on graphical diagrams. The concrete graphical syntax of these languages typically is defined informally -- by text and diagram examples. Only recently, starting from UML 2.5, a formalism is offered for ...
Read More

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

MODELS '20: Proceedings of the 23rd ACM/IEEE International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems: Companion Proceedings

October 2020

713 pages

ISBN:9781450381352

DOI:10.1145/3417990

Conference Chairs:
Esther Guerra
Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain
,
Ludovico Iovino
Gran Sasso Science Institute, Italy

Copyright © 2020 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Sponsors

SIGSOFT: ACM Special Interest Group on Software Engineering

In-Cooperation

IEEE CS

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 26 October 2020

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article

Conference

MODELS '20

Sponsor:

SIGSOFT

MODELS '20: ACM/IEEE 23rd International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems

October 16 - 23, 2020

Virtual Event, Canada

Acceptance Rates

Overall Acceptance Rate 118 of 382 submissions, 31%

Upcoming Conference

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

2
Total Citations
View Citations
122
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)14
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)1

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Homolka MMarchezan LAssunção WEgyed ARoychoudhury APaiva AAbreu RStorey MHierons RMadeira H(2024)"Don’t Touch my Model!" Towards Managing Model History and Versions during Metamodel EvolutionProceedings of the 2024 ACM/IEEE 44th International Conference on Software Engineering: New Ideas and Emerging Results10.1145/3639476.3639758(77-81)Online publication date: 14-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3639476.3639758
Di Ruscio DDi Salle AIovino LPierantonio A(2023)A modeling assistant to manage technical debt in coupled evolutionInformation and Software Technology10.1016/j.infsof.2022.107146156(107146)Online publication date: Apr-2023
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2022.107146

View Options

Get Access

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Table of Contents