The document discusses MDA (Model Driven Architecture) and its advantages over traditional software development approaches. It provides an overview of MDA, including its core concepts of platform independent models (PIM) and platform specific models (PSM). The document also discusses applying MDA in practice and outlines next steps, which include defining requirements for an MDA framework, choosing a pilot project, and researching transformations and metamodeling.

1. MDA Start Up
MDA presentation
Lai Duy Ha
Østfold University College
July 15, 2011

2. Outline
 My motivation
 Traditional Software Development
problems
 Overview of MDA
 Inside MDA framework
 Apply MDA in practice
 Next steps

3. Motivation
 Boring code cause by:
 Follow templates or coding style guide.
 The consistent of the system.
 The benefit of maintaining.
 Disadvantage
 Reduce inspiration of developers.
 Silly copy/paste code.

4. Motivation
 Example of one normal module:
 Insert, update, delete record in one table.
 Each field has its own validation.
 Field’s presentation (type of control, row, column,….)
 etc…
 One system may contains more than 20+ modules like this

5. Motivation
 My approach:
 Using configuration data.
 Validation.
 Layout data.
 Using template file & complier to generate
code.

6. Motivation
 Challenge
 The change of configuration data’s structure over
time
 Need to re-construct the structure of configuration
data

7. Motivation
 Should have the system approach to define
the structure of configuration data as flexible
as possible.
 Should analyze the problems at higher level.
MDA

8. Outline
 My motivation
 Traditional Software Development
problems
 Overview of MDA
 Inside MDA framework
 Apply MDA in practice
 Next steps

9. Traditional Software
Development problems
 Most of the
artifacts during the
first three phases is
just paper and
nothing more.
 Productivity
 Maintenance
 Document
 Portability

10. Outline
 My motivation
 Traditional Software Development
problems
 Overview of MDA
 Inside MDA framework
 Apply MDA in practice
 Next steps

11. Overview of MDA
 Model driven architecture: was
launched by the OMG in 2001.

12. MDA development process
 The artifacts are
formal models
(which can be
understood by
computers)
 Models are the core
at MDA

13. MDA Models
 Platform Independent Model (PIM)
 a high level abstraction.
 independent of any implementation
technology.
 Platform Specific Model (PSM)
 tailored to specify system in terms of the
implementation.

14. MDA transformation steps

15. Outline
 My motivation
 Traditional Software Development
problems
 Overview of MDA
 Inside MDA framework
 Apply MDA in practice
 Next steps

16. MDA framework
 What is a model ???
 A model is always an abstraction of
something that exists in reality.
 A model is different from the thing it
models, e.g., details are left out or its
size is different.
 A model can be used as an example to
produce something that exists in reality.
 A model is a description of (part of) a system
written in a well-defined language.

17. MDA framework

18. MDA framework
 Building blocks:
 A model is a description of a system.
 PIM
 PSM
 Well-defined language is used to write models.
 A transformation definition describes how a model
in a source language can be transformed into a
model in a target language. This also should be
written by well-defined language.
 A transformation tool performs a transformation
for a specific source model according to a
transformation definition.

19. MDA framework
 Participants, tools, and artifacts in the MDA process

20. Outline
 My motivation
 Traditional Software Development
problems
 Overview of MDA
 Inside MDA framework
 Apply MDA in practice
 Next steps

21. Apply MDA in practice
 Pros and cons to apply MDA in practice

22. Apply MDA in practice
 The impact of MDE activities on productivity and
maintainability

23. Apply MDA in practice
 “...when you build an enterprise system, do you program
all the low-level database stuff...the B+ trees... or do
you define a data model and feed it into a database
management system...are you constantly writing raw
HTML or Java code or are you using tools that allow you
to paint a dialog box and generate some code... for the
front and back ends of our systems, we long ago
abandoned low-level coding as a dominant abstraction
of development...”
 “So the idea of applying a sort of methodology approach
to modeling and code generation was really attractive –
it seemed like it was an obvious next step to take in
insuring quality and consistency and again not solving
the same kinds of problems over and over again.”

24. Apply MDA in practice
 “So the question is, is somebody naturally inclined to
think in terms of design or do they think more in terms
of detail? ...I don’t think that the education that people
get necessarily gets them thinking towards design”
 “There are people who you can’t teach this to because
they think always in examples.”

25. Apply MDA in practice
 Conclusion
 productivity gains associated with MDE.
 the issue of abstraction
 the importance of training and education.

26. Outline
 My motivation
 Traditional Software Development
problems
 Overview of MDA
 Inside MDA framework
 Apply MDA in practice
 Next steps

27. Next steps
 Name the project.
 Divide group:
 Define the requirements of our MDA framework.
 Choose a pilot project & model it.
 Analyze existing MDA frameworks.
 Research more about MDA, make the presentation.
 Next presentation
 More on Transformations.
 Metamodeling.
 Defining Your Own Transformations.
 The MDA Promise.

28. Reference
 Kleppe, A. G., J. Warmer, et al. 2003 MDA Explained:
TheModel Driven Architecture: Practice and Promise,
Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc.
 John Hutchinson, Jon Whittle, Mark Rouncefield and
Steinar Kristoffersen 2011 Empirical Assessment of MDE
in Industry, ACM.