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Model-integrating development of software systems: a flexible component-based approach

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Abstract

A promising way to develop flexible software systems is to include models that are analyzed, modified and executed at runtime as an integrated part of the system. Building such model-integrating systems is a challenging task since the respective modeling languages have to be supported comprehensively at runtime, and these systems still need to be developable in a modular way by composing them from basic building blocks. Model-driven (MDD) and component-based development (CBD) are two established orthogonal approaches that can tackle the mentioned challenges. MDD is based on the use of models and modeling languages as first-class entities to systematically engineer software systems. CBD enables the engineering of modular systems by facilitating a divide-and-conquer approach with reuse. However, combining and aligning the individual principles from both approaches is an open research problem. In this article, we describe model-integrating development (MID), an engineering approach that enables the systematic development of component-based, model-integrating software. MID combines principles from MDD and CBD and is based on the central assumption that models and code shall be treated equally as first-class entities of software throughout its life cycle. In particular, MID leverages the added flexibility that comes with models at runtime, i.e., when models are an integral part of running software. The practicability of the proposed solution concept is rationalized based on a reference implementation that provides the basis for a thoroughly described and critically discussed feasibility study: a dynamic access control product line. The obtained benefits are presented in a distilled way, and future research challenges are identified.

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Notes

  1. Of course, using MoCos by themselves does not guarantee high-quality software. Good and bad software can be developed in code and in models. MoCos are no substitute for professional engineering.

  2. https://projects.eclipse.org/projects/modeling.

  3. Hopefully in practice such a language is already at hand, but to use it as an example for modeling language engineering of a DSML, we decided to invent our own rule language.

  4. Since it is much better readable than a handwritten mockup, a screenshot of the final running dynamic access control system is given in Figs. 13 and 14 to describe the structure of the user interface. The depicted labels (e.g., R1, R1D1S, ...) and arrows in the top-down view of rooms are added for illustration purposes and are not part of the actual screen.

  5. In this study, simulated data are rendered as no real sensors in real rooms were available. Technically, the software could process inputs from real sensors, though.

  6. The distinction between conventional components (\(\mathtt {<<}\)component\(\mathtt {>>}\)) and MoCos (\(\mathtt {<<}\)moco\(\mathtt {>>}\)) is not yet part of this design activity.

  7. The source code of the DAC-PL case study in its state achieved in 2015 is available at https://github.com/jgralab/dacpl.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Thomas Iguchi for his implementation support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Software Technology, University of Koblenz-Landau, Koblenz, Germany

    Jürgen Ebert

  2. MHPLab Berlin, MHP – A Porsche Company, Berlin, Germany

    Mahdi Derakhshanmanesh

  3. Department of Computer Science, Paderborn University, Paderborn, Germany

    Marvin Grieger & Gregor Engels

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  1. Mahdi Derakhshanmanesh
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  2. Jürgen Ebert
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  3. Marvin Grieger
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  4. Gregor Engels
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Correspondence to Jürgen Ebert.

Additional information

Communicated by Professor Hong Mei.

This work is supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) under Grants EB 119/11-1 and EN 184/6-1.

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Derakhshanmanesh, M., Ebert, J., Grieger, M. et al. Model-integrating development of software systems: a flexible component-based approach. Softw Syst Model 18, 2557–2586 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10270-018-0682-5

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