Model-driven development of multi-view modelling tools the MuVieMOT approach

As the complexity of modern computer and enterprise systems is ever increasing due to emerging technologies and the need to integrate different systems, modelling tools, designed to encourage modellers in creating models according to the complex reality are of rising importance. Multi-view modelling methods (MVMM) can cope with this complexity by providing visualization, decomposition, and specialization functionality. The creation of a model is decomposed into the creation of several views and integrating them in order to derive the whole model of the system. Keeping the multiple views consistent and providing suitable visualization means is vital for applicability and usability of MVMMs. By contrast, when designing such tools, one is forced to adopt conventional software engineering approaches. The paper at hand tries to contribute filling that research gap by introducing a model-driven approach, tailored to the specifics of designing multi-view modelling tools. A prototypical implementation of the approach enables automatic generation of modelling tools for MVMM using the ADOxx meta modelling platform.