Model driven software development and evolution

大型软件应用程序是在不同的阶段设计和开发的。这些阶段涉及指定需求和业务目标、设计系统、实现源程序、测试单个组件和作为整体的应用程序以及最后部署系统。在软件工程文献中，我们认为一旦软件系统被部署到一个站点上，那么它们就进入了一个被称为维护阶段的新阶段。在这方面，设计一个新系统属于正向工程，而理解和维护现有系统属于逆向工程和进化。传统上，正向工程和应用程序进化被认为是软件工程研究的两个不同领域，它们共享非常有限的（如果有的话）公共模型、过程、技术和工具。直到最近，研究团体和软件工程实践者才将软件开发视为一个迭代和增量的过程，在这个过程中，模型和工件缓慢地、增量地设计、开发和细化，直到完整的应用程序完成。这样的方法认为软件开发应该采取一致的、系统的和增量的理解、操作、转换、演进和软件模型同步的形式。这些模型共存于称为集成开发环境（ide）的专用工具中。在此背景下，本研究的目标是调查、设计和实现支持软件模型的表示、转换和同步的新技术，以促进大型工业系统的半自动、迭代和增量设计、开发和演变。到目前为止，对于可以用于支持下一代集成开发环境的模型转换框架的一般化，只有有限的研究。这项研究有望为如何设计下一代集成软件开发环境提供见解。

Large software applications are designed and developed in distinct phases. These phases pertain to specifying the requirements and the business objectives, designing the system, implementing the source program, testing the individual components and the application as a whole and finally, deploying the system. In the software engineering literature we consider that once software systems are deployed on a site then they enter a new phase which is referred to as, the maintenance phase. In this respect, designing a new system pertains to forward engineering while understanding and maintaining existing systems pertains to reverse engineering and evolution. Traditionally, forward engineering and application evolution were considered as two distinct areas of software engineering research that share very limited, if any, common models, processes, techniques, and tools. It is only recently that the research community and the software engineering practitioners view software development as an iterative and incremental process, where models and artifacts are slowly and incrementally designed, developed and, refined until the full application is completed. Such approaches consider that software development should take the form of consistent, systematic and incremental understanding, manipulation, transformation, evolution, and synchronization of software models. These models co-exist in specialized tools called Integrated Development Environments or IDEs. In this context, the objective of the proposed research is to investigate, design, and implement novel techniques to support the representation, transformation, and synchronization of software models in order to facilitate the semi-automatic, iterative and, incremental design, development and, evolution of large industrial systems. To date, there is only limited research on generalizing such model transformation frameworks that can be used to support the next generation of Integrated Development Environments. This research is expected to provide insights on how to design the next generation Integrated Software Development Environments.