More information (full text) available in http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1001/paper5.pdf

1. A Framework for Evaluating the
Ontological Quality of Languages in
MDE Environments
Fáber D. Giraldo
CAiSE'13 Doctoral Consortium
Valencia, June 2013

2. Agenda
 Introduction
 Research methodology
 Related work
 Results achieved
 Conclusions

3. Introduction
 Context
– MDE challenge: the management and integration of
languages and models formulated to support multiple views
during the information systems development.
– In the real life several trends and particular interpretations of
model‐driven contribute to confusion and chaos
– See for example:
¿Why did MDE miss the boat?
Jean Bézivin, October 17, 2011
and analysis made by InfoQ in October 2011

4. Introduction
 Problem
– The adoption of the MDE approaches have guided the
development of a large number of initiatives; although it
emphasizes the use of models as primary artifacts of a
software construction process, it causes a conceptual
divergence in the support of specific views and/or concerns
belonging to an IS.
– Most of the works about quality in models do not cover the
quality of languages and models from a MDE viewpoint, i.e.,
they do not explain how multiple proposals for managing
multiple views in a MDE scenario can co‐exist.

5. Introduction
 Goal
• The main goal of this research is to formulate a method for the
evaluation of the quality of a set of languages jointly used
within an MDE project.
• The ontological quality evaluation framework proposed in this
research is conceived as a conceptual, methodology and
technology tool for the evaluation of language proposals and
models (as productions of languages), whose purpose is to
assess one set of languages/models regarding its
incorporation and adoption capabilities in a MDE
environment.

6. Introduction
 Research Questions
– (RQ1) What problems are evidenced in model‐driven
projects related to the selection of languages?
– (RQ2) What is the set of concepts that are required to
model when we are in a model‐driven project?
– (RQ3) When a set of modelling languages is selected to be
used in combination in an MDE project, are there methods
for evaluating the suitability such set of languages?
– (RQ4) Propose a method for the evaluation of the
ontological quality of a set of languages used jointly within
a model‐driven project.
– (RQ5) What advantages/disadvantages are obtained by
the application of the proposed method?

7. Agenda
 Introduction
 Research methodology
 Related work
 Results achieved
 Conclusions

8. Research Methodology

9. Agenda
 Introduction
 Research methodology
 Related work
 Results achieved
 Conclusions

10. Related work
• Progressively, a growing interest about quality in models are
evidence:
• How quality in models are defined?
• Which are the dimensions of quality in models?
• Representative works in quality of models are grouped into
– Quality frameworks
– Usability of modelling languages
– Guidelines of modelling
– Accordance to ISO standards, such as 9126, 25000 or
42010
– Integration by EA frameworks

11. Related work
Quality frameworks
6C Framework ‐ Parastoo Mohagheghi, SINTEF, Norway

12. Related work
Quality frameworks
SEQUAL Framework, John Krogstie, NTNU, Norway

13. Related work
Quality frameworks
The “PHYSICS” of Notations, Daniel L. Moody, Australia

14. Related work
Usability of modelling languages
Schalles, C. (2013). A Framework for Usability Evaluation of Modeling Languages (FUEML).
Usability Evaluation of Modeling Languages, Springer..

15. Related work
Conformance with ISO standards
source: Burgués, Franch and Ribó
MOF‐compliant
approaches for
structuring quality
models in order to
formalise software
quality issues and
deal with quality
information
modelling

16. Related works
EA Integration
• Works led from Vallecillo and others
• Integration by RM‐ODP (ISO/IEC 10746)
• Generic model‐driven approach to the specification and realization
of correspondences between viewpoints.
Source: http://www.intelligrid.info/HTML/IECSA_VolumeIV.htm

17. Related works
 Again, they do not explain how multiple proposals for
managing multiple views in a MDE scenario can co‐exist
 Some of these proposals cover the language integration issue,
but not the evaluation itself

18. Agenda
 Introduction
 Research methodology
 Related work
 Results achieved
 Conclusions

19. Results achieved
 Initial versión of conceptual framework for quality of languages
 Systematic review about quality in MDE (first steps)

20. Agenda
 Introduction
 Research methodology
 Related work
 Results achieved
 Conclusions

21. Conclusion
 A framework for evaluating the ontological quality of
languages in MDE environments has been proposed
 “Ontological” term suggest the use of one reference
taxonomy based on principles from IS development and MDE

22. A Framework for Evaluating the Ontological
Quality of Languages in MDE Environments
Fáber D. Giraldo
fdgiraldo@pros.upv.es
CAiSE'13 Doctoral Consortium
Valencia, June 2013