A Light-weight Tool Integration Approach - From a Tool Integration Model to OSLC Integration Services

Existing tool integration approaches integrate various tools directly through tool proprietary APIs. This kind of integration lacks standardization and are different case by case. Integration based upon common tool metamodels also turns to be too complicated and hard to maintain. In this paper we provide an approach which integrates tools based on a combination of tool metamodels and an integration model. Tool element representatives (Artifacts) are defined to make integrations more standardized and flexible compared to direct tool APIs. The approach links the tool integration model to the various tool metamodels, and provides mechanism by which the common integration properties and the various tool metamodels are related. An industrial case study has been performed to validate the approach with both scenarios of traceability and exchange of data based upon common data definitions.