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Assessing the quality of metamodels

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Abstract

The complexity and diversity of modern software demands a variety of metamodel-based modeling languages for software development. Existing languages change continuously, and new ones are constantly emerging. In this situation, and especially for metamodel-based modeling languages, a quality assurance mechanism for metamodels is needed. This paper presents an approach to assessing the quality of metamodels. A quality model, which systematically characterizes and classifies quality attributes, and an operable measuring mechanism for effectively assessing the quality of metamodels based on the quality model, are presented, using UML as the main example.

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Correspondence to Zhiyi Ma.

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Zhiyi Ma received his PhD in computer science in 1999. His research interests focus on metamodeling technology, software modeling methods, and software engineering environments. He is the author of 6 books and more than 100 publications in journals and conferences. He received the Second Prize of China National Science and Technology Progress Award and several special contribution awards of China National Ministries and Commissions.

Xiao He received his PhD in computer science from Peking University in 2012, and now is a post-doctoral researcher in the University of Science and Technology Beijing. He is interested in software modeling, metamodeling, and model transformation.

Chao Liu received his PhD in management, and pursued postdoctoral research in finance. He has been a professor possessing special allowance from the State Council and a member of Excellent Talents Support Program launched by Ministry of Education, China. He has successively presided over projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the China National Social Science Fund, and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation of Scientific Research Projects.

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Ma, Z., He, X. & Liu, C. Assessing the quality of metamodels. Front. Comput. Sci. 7, 558–570 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11704-013-1151-5

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