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A powertype-based metamodelling framework

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Abstract

Software development methodologies may be described in the context of an underpinning metamodel, but the precise mechanisms that permit them to be defined in terms of their metamodels are usually difficult to explain and do not cover all needs. For example, it is difficult to devise a way that allows the definition of properties of the elements that compose the methodology and, at the same time, of the entities (such as work products) created when the methodology is applied. This article introduces a new approach to constructing metamodels and deriving methodologies from them based on the concept of powertype. It combines key advantages of other metamodelling approaches and allows the seamless integration of process, modelling and documentational aspects of methodologies. With this approach, both methodology components and project entities can be described directly by the same metamodel.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Software Engineering, Faculty of Information Technology, University of Technology, Sydney

    Cesar Gonzalez-Perez & Brian Henderson-Sellers

Authors
  1. Cesar Gonzalez-Perez
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  2. Brian Henderson-Sellers
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cesar Gonzalez-Perez.

Additional information

Communicated by Prof. James Bieman

Cesar Gonzalez-Perez is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Faculty of Information Technology at UTS, where he works in object- and agent- oriented methodologies and metamodelling. Cesar is the author of over 40 publications and has led 12 successful software development projects. Cesar has previously worked in archaeology as well as biology, both in industry and academe. Cesar is the founder and former technical director of Neco, a company based in Spain specialising in software development support services, which include the deployment and use of the OPEN/Metis methodological framework at small and mid-sized organisations.

Brian Henderson-Sellers is Director of the Centre for Object Technology Applications and Research and Professor of Information Systems at University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). He is author of eleven books on object technology and is well-known for his work in OO methodologies (MOSES, COMMA, OPEN, OOSPICE) and in OO metrics and, more recently, in agent-oriented methodologies. Brian has been Regional Editor of Object-Oriented Systems, a member of the editorial board of Object Magazine/Component Strategies and Object Expert for many years and is currently on the editorial board of Journal of Object Technology and Software and Systems Modelling. He is Editor of the International Journal on Agent-Oriented Software Engineering. He was the Founder of the Object-Oriented Special Interest Group of the Australian Computer Society (NSW Branch) and Chairman of the Computerworld Object Developers' Awards committee for ObjectWorld 94 and 95 (Sydney). He is a frequent, invited speaker at international OT conferences. In 1999, he was voted number 3 in the Who's Who of Object Technology (Handbook of Object Technology, CRC Press, Appendix N). He is a member of the Review Panel for the OMG's Software Process Engineering Model (SPEM) standards initiative and a member of the UML2.0 review team. In July 2001, Professor Henderson-Sellers was awarded a Doctor of Science (DSc) from the University of London for his research contributions in object-oriented methodologies.

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Gonzalez-Perez, C., Henderson-Sellers, B. A powertype-based metamodelling framework. Softw Syst Model 5, 72–90 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10270-005-0099-9

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