Process Patterns for MDA-Based Software Development

Information systems are expected to satisfy increasingly ambitious requirements, while reducing time-to-market has become a primary objective. This trend has necessitated the advent of development approaches that are better equipped and flexible enough to cope with modern challenges. Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) and Situational Method Engineering (SME) are approaches addressing this requirement: MDA provides promising means for automating the software process, and revitalizes the role of modeling in software development, SME focuses on project-specific methodology construction, mainly through assembling reusable method fragments (process patterns) retrieved from a method base. We provide a set of high-level process patterns for model-driven development which have been derived from a study of six prominent MDA-based methodologies, and which form the basis for a proposed generic MDA Software Process (MDASP). These process patterns can promote SME by providing classes of common process components which can be used for assembling, tailoring, and extending MDA-based methodologies.