Model-Driven Engineering and Model Transformation: for Fun and Profit

Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) [1] is an engineering discipline that uses descriptions of phenomena of interest as first-class engineering artefacts. These artefacts – models – are expressed in a variety of general-purpose and domain-specific languages, and are manipulated by automated tools for analysis, validation, transformation, evolution and other purposes. MDE attempts to balance requirements for rigorous and precise description with those for automated tool support for key engineering tasks. As such, the descriptions produced when applying MDE do not always lend themselves directly to mathematical reasoning; however, descriptions are easily constructed and manipulated by powerful automated tools for model management. At the heart of MDE is model transformation [2], the process of transforming models across and between languages. Model transformations of different kinds underpin many of the engineering tasks (and automated tools) for MDE. Diverse model transformations have been identified, and a number of powerful tools for their construction and execution have been developed and put in to practice.