Combining unit and specification-based testing for meta-model validation and verification
Entity
UAM. Departamento de Ingeniería InformáticaPublisher
Elsevier LtdDate
2016-12Citation
10.1016/j.is.2016.06.008
Information Systems 62 (2016): 104 – 135
ISSN
0306-4379 (print); 1873-6076 (online)DOI
10.1016/j.is.2016.06.008Funded by
This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity with project “Flexor” (TIN2014-52129-R), the region of Madrid with project “SICOMORO-CM” (S2013/ICE-3006), and the EU commission with project “MONDO” (FP7- ICT-2013-10, #611125).Project
Gobierno de España. TIN2014-52129-R; Comunidad de Madrid. S2013/ICE-3006/SICOMORO; info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/FP7/611125Editor's Version
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.is.2016.06.008Subjects
Domain-specific modelling languages; Meta-model quality; Meta-modelling; Model-driven engineering; Validation & verification; InformáticaNote
This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Information Systems. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Information Systems, VOL 62, (2016)] DOI 10.1016/j.is.2016.06.008Rights
© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reservedEsta obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-SinObraDerivada 4.0 Internacional.
Abstract
Meta-models play a cornerstone role in Model-Driven Engineering as they are used to define the abstract syntax of modelling languages, and so models and all sorts of model transformations depend on them. However, there are scarce tools and methods supporting their Validation and Verification (V&V), which are essential activities for the proper engineering of meta-models. In order to fill this gap, we propose two complementary meta-model V&V languages. The first one has similar philosophy to the xUnit framework, as it enables the definition of meta-model unit test suites comprising model fragments and assertions on their (in-)correctness. The second one is directed to express and verify expected properties of a meta-model, including domain and design properties, quality criteria and platform-specific requirements. As a proof of concept, we have developed tooling for both languages in the Eclipse platform, and illustrate its use within an example-driven approach for meta-model construction. The expressiveness of our languages is demonstrated by their application to build a library of meta-model quality issues, which has been evaluated over the ATL zoo of meta-models and some OMG specifications. The results show that integrated support for meta-model V&V (as the one we propose here) is urgently needed in meta-modelling environments.
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Google Scholar:López-Fernández, Jesús J.
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Guerra Sánchez, Esther
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Lara Jaramillo, Juan de
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