Abstract The quality of model transformations (MT) has high impact on model-driven engineering (MDE) software development approaches, because of the central role played by transformations in MDE for refining, migrating, refactoring and other operations on models. For programming languages, a popular paradigm for code quality is the concept of technical debt (TD), which uses the analogy that quality flaws in code are a debt burden carried by the software, which must either be ‘redeemed’ by expending specific effort to remove its flaws, or be tolerated, with ongoing additional costs to maintenance due to the flaws. Whilst the analysis and management of quality flaws and TD in programming languages has been investigated in depth over several years, less research on the topic has been carried out for model transformations. In this paper we investigate the characteristics of quality flaws and technical debt in model transformation languages, based upon systematic analysis of over 100 transformation cases in four leading MT languages. Based on quality flaw indicators for TD, we identify significant differences in the level and kinds of technical debt in different MT languages, and we propose ways in which TD in MT can be reduced and managed.

中文翻译：

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模型转换规范中质量缺陷和技术债务的比较

摘要 模型转换 (MT) 的质量对模型驱动工程 (MDE) 软件开发方法有很大影响，因为 MDE 中的转换在模型的提炼、迁移、重构和其他操作方面发挥着核心作用。对于编程语言，一种流行的代码质量范式是技术债务 (TD) 的概念，它使用这样的类比：代码中的质量缺陷是由软件承担的债务负担，必须通过花费特定的努力来“弥补”消除其缺陷，或被容忍，由于缺陷而持续增加维护成本。虽然多年来对编程语言中质量缺陷和 TD 的分析和管理进行了深入研究，但关于模型转换的主题研究较少。在本文中，我们基于对四种主要 MT 语言的 100 多个转换案例的系统分析，研究了模型转换语言的质量缺陷和技术债务的特征。基于 TD 的质量缺陷指标，我们确定了不同 MT 语言的技术债务水平和种类的显着差异，并提出了可以减少和管理 MT 中的 TD 的方法。