Model-driven systems development

Traditional systems development methods are designed to create a “point solution”—that is, a solution for a specific and static set of requirements. These methods result in systems that are sluggish in their response to dynamic conditions and changing requirements, expensive to maintain over extended periods of time, and prone to system failure. As an alternative to this approach, this paper describes a model-driven approach to systems development, which extends traditional systems engineering methods and is well-suited to a systems development environment characterized by rapidly changing conditions and requirements. We describe how model-driven systems development is performed by using the RUP® (Rational Unified Process® for Systems Engineering) architecture framework and transformation methods, which have been refined over eight years of field experience by Rational®, IBM, and our clients.