literature [The Consultative Comm. 2006], [Brown 2006], [Muller
2008], [Open GeoSpatial Consotrium], [Shames 2004], [Tamblyn
2007], [Usländer 2007]. This high level of abstraction in terms of the
domain to be modelled stands in contrast to input needed for established and
standardised methodologies such as, for instance, Aspect-Oriented
Programming, Model-Driven Engineering, Pattern-Based Design, and SysML.
All these methodologies were designed for very concrete use cases and
application scenarios. Unfortunately, this high degree of specificity is even
defining their inner workings. In other words, if one applies them to generalised
use cases one does not get generalised models on the abstract level of an
ARM, but one does actually not yield anything.
We illustrate the above issue with one example, Model-Driven Engineering,
which is standardised by the Object Management Group (OMG) [Miller
2003]. The main application area of this methodology is the development of
software systems. Model-Driven Engineering provides prescribes four steps for
a development process:
- Specify a system independently from the platform;
- Specify platforms;
- Choose a particular platform for the system;
- Transform the system specification into that of the particular platform.
The goals behind this approach are portability, interoperability, and reusability
through the architectural separation of concerns [Vicente-Chicote 2007].
So, on the face of it, all this sounds very similar to the goals of our ARM
development process.
In Figure 168 , the main idea of model-driven architecture is summarised. A
platform-independent model, viz. an architecture, is to be transformed into a
platform-specific model, viz. an implementation. An example for the former is a
GUI user interface described in UML, and the latter is an implementation of said
interface in a cell-phone model featuring a particular operation system.
Platform-
Independent
Model
Architecture
Platform-
Specific
Model
Implementation
T
ra
ns
fo
rm
a
tio
n
Figure 168 : Generalised architecture approach according to the Model-Driven-
Architecture methodology, a.k.a. Model-Driven Engineering [Miller 2003].