Context-Driven Model Refinement

An important drive for Model-Driven Architecture is that many software applications have to be deployed on a variety of platforms and within a variety of contexts in general. Using software models, e.g. described in the Unified Modeling Language (UML), one can abstract from specific platforms. A software model can then be transformed to a refined model, given the context in which it should run. Currently, each target context requires its own model transformation. Only a limited number of contexts can be supported in this way. We propose a context-driven modelling framework that models each target context in a context model, described in the Web Ontology Language (OWL). Multiple reusable transformation rules are used, which are annotated with context constraints, based on the OWL context model. The framework can automatically select the transformation rules that are applicable for a concrete context.