Operation-based conflict detection and resolution

Models are in wide-spread use in the software development lifecycle and model-driven development even promotes them from an abstraction of the system to the description the system is generated from. Therefore it is increasingly important to collaborate on models. These models can range from requirements models over UML models to project management models such as schedules. Tool support for collaboration on models is therefore crucial. Traditionally software configuration management (SCM) systems such as RCS [9] or Subversion [10] have supported this task for textual artifacts such as source code on the granularity of files and textual lines. They do not work well for graph-like models with many links since the granularity needed to support them is on the level of model elements and their attributes. For the design of a novel SCM system addressing these requirements it is essential to define how conflicts on models are detected and how they can be resolved. In this paper we present an approach to conflict detection and resolution on models. We employ operation-based change tracking and therefore detect conflicts based on operations. For conflict resolution we propose an integration of SCM with techniques from rational management to effectively resolve conflicts.