A Model Engineering Approach to Tool Interoperability

The integration of various tools is a common requirement throughout the software development process. It is often desirable to consult several tools that perform similar functionalities in the same domain to obtain different perspectives and results to assist design and maintenance decisions. In many cases, tool interoperability requires the generalization of tool-specific data, which requires homogenizing the data such that intellectual assets can be shared through a common framework (e.g., the integration of results from various clone detection tools). This tool demonstration summary presents a software language engineering solution technique that uses Model-Driven Engineering to address tool interoperability. A specific focus of the paper is a demonstration of model transformation applied to the task of homogenizing different data formats among similar tools. The challenges of tool integration are discussed in the paper, along with a detailed case study that highlights the benefits of applying a model transformation solution to tool interoperability.