Software design through model transformation

虽然软件工程的研究已经取得了很大的进展，但设计高质量的软件系统和提高生产率仍然是一个巨大的挑战。这是由于软件开发过程的复杂性，需要在所分析的领域和软件开发方面都有广泛的知识。我们确定了两种尝试管理这种复杂性的正交方法。第一种观点认为开发过程是一系列的转换，从软件的规范开始，以软件的实现结束，而第二种观点包括确定反复出现的问题的解决方案。我们的研究计划结合了这两种方法，特别是在设计步骤中。事实上，我们的目标是开发在转换模型驱动的方法框架内支持软件设计人员从分析过渡到设计的技术和工具。特别是，我们感兴趣的是探索支持两个关键设计活动的转换，即架构设计和详细设计。我们将这些设计活动视为通过应用编码化的设计构件(如设计模式和架构样式)来转换输入模型的过程。因此，在这个研究计划中，我们建议构建和实现有助于推断应用这些设计构件的上下文的方法，并支持它们在模型转换框架中的应用。

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.