Software design through model transformation

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Although much progress has been accomplished by software engineering research, designing high quality software systems and increasing productivity still pose great challenges. This results from the complexity of the software development process which requires extensive knowledge both in the domain under analysis and in software development. We identify two orthogonal approaches that attempt to manage this complexity. The first views the development process as a sequence of transformations that start with a specification of the software and end with its implementation while the second consists of identifying solutions to recurring problems. Our research program combines these two approaches, in particular in the design step. Indeed we aim to develop techniques and tools that support software designers in the transition from analysis to design within the framework of a transformational model-driven approach. In particular, we are interested in exploring transformations that support two key design activities namely architectural design and detailed design. We view these design activities as the process of transforming input models by applying codified design artifacts such as design patterns and architectural styles. Hence, within this research program, we propose to build and implement approaches that will help in inferring the context for applying these design artifacts and support their application within a model transformation framework.