Abstract When engineering complex systems, models are typically used to represent various systems aspects. These models are often heterogeneous in terms of modeling languages, provenance, number or scale. As a result, the information actually relevant to engineers is usually split into different kinds of interrelated models. To be useful in practice, these models need to be properly integrated to provide

Abstract Data of sequential nature arise in many application domains in the form of, e.g., textual data, DNA sequences, and software execution traces. Different research disciplines have developed methods to learn sequence models from such datasets: (i) In the machine learning field methods such as (hidden) Markov models and recurrent neural networks have been developed and successfully applied to

Abstract Model-driven engineering involves the construction of models on different levels of abstraction. Software engineers are supported by model transformations, which automate the transition from high- to low-level models. Product line engineering denotes a systematic process that aims at developing different product variants from a set of reusable assets. When model-driven engineering is combined

Abstract Traditionally, the preferred means of documentation used by safety engineers have been sheets- and text-based solutions. However, in the last decades, the introduction of model-driven engineering in conjunction with Component-Based Design has been influencing the way safety engineers perform their tasks; especially in the area of fault analysis, model-driven approaches have been developed

Abstract Business processes are frequently executed within application systems that involve humans, computer systems as well as objects of the Internet of Things (IoT). Nevertheless, the usage of IoT technology for system supported process execution is still constrained by the absence of a common system architecture that manages the communication between both worlds. In this paper, we introduce an

Abstract Software build systems tackle the problem of building software from sources in a way which is sound (when a build completes successfully, the relations between the generated and source files are as specified) and optimal (only genuinely required rebuilding steps are done). In this paper, we explain and exploit the connection between software build and the megamodel consistency problem. The

Abstract With the extensive development of big data and social networks, the user profile field has received much attention. User profiling is essential for understanding the characteristics of various users, contributing to better understanding of their requirements in specific scenarios. User-generated contents which directly reflect people’s thoughts and intention are a valuable source for profiling

Abstract Service composition aims at achieving a business goal by composing existing service-based applications or components. The response time of a service is crucial, especially in time-critical business environments, which is often stated as a clause in service-level agreements between service providers and service users. To meet the guaranteed response time requirement of a composite service,

Abstract As the engineering of distributed embedded systems is getting more and more complex, due to increasingly sophisticated functionalities demanding more and more powerful hardware, model-based development of software-intensive embedded systems has become a de facto standard in recent years. Among other advantages, it enables design space exploration methods allowing for frontloading techniques

Abstract The problem of software language extension and composition drives much of the research in Software Language Engineering (SLE). Although various solutions have already been proposed, there is still little understanding of the specific ins and outs of this problem, which hinders the comparison and evaluation of existing solutionsIn this SoSyM Expert Voice, we introduce the Language Extension

Abstract Conventional wisdom on Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) suggests that this software discipline is the key to achieve superior automation, whether it be refactoring, simulation, or code generation. However, the diversity of employed languages and technologies blurs the picture making it difficult to analyze existing MDE-based projects in order to retrieve architectural information to foster a

Abstract Over the last decade, a range of new database solutions and technologies have emerged, in line with the new types of applications and requirements that they facilitate. Consequently, various new methods for designing these new databases have evolved, in order to keep pace with progress in the field. In this paper, we systematically review these methods, with a view to better understanding

Abstract In model-driven engineering, model transformation (MT) verification is essential for reliably producing software artifacts. While recent advancements have enabled automatic Hoare-style verification for non-trivial MTs, there are certain verification tasks (e.g. induction) that are intrinsically difficult to automate. Existing tools that aim at simplifying the interactive verification of MTs

Abstract Personal data have become a central asset for multiple enterprise applications and online services offered by private companies, public organisations or a combination of both. The sensitivity of such data and the continuously growing legislation that accompanies their management dictate the development of methods that allow the development of more secure, trustworthy software systems with

Abstract Conducting technology-oriented experiments (i.e., experiments in which treatments are applied to objects by a computer-based tool) without proper tool support is often a time-consuming and highly error-prone task. Although many techniques have been proposed to help conducting controlled experiments, none of them simultaneously addresses (1) the executable specification of experiments at a

Abstract Open Data (OD) is data available in a machine-readable format and without restrictions on the permissions for using or distributing it. OD may include textual artifacts, images, maps, video content, and other. The data can be published and maintained by different entities, both public and private. Despite its power to distribute knowledge freely and availability of a large number of datasets

Abstract Understanding how developers interact with different software artifacts when performing comprehension tasks has a potential to improve developers’ productivity. In this paper, we propose a method to analyze eye-tracking data using process mining to find distinct reading patterns of how developers interacted with the different artifacts. To validate our approach, we conducted an exploratory

Abstract This paper presents a novel security modelling language and a set of original analysis techniques, for capturing and analysing security requirements for cloud computing environments. The novelty of the language lies in the integration of concepts from cloud computing, with concepts from security and goal-oriented requirements engineering to elicit, model and analyse security requirements for

Abstract Conceptual modeling promises to support various analysis questions on organizational structures, such as allocation of tasks, responsibilities, and authority in an organization. In this paper, we first synthesize requirements on an organizational structure analysis from the business scholar literature and assess to what extent and how current modeling languages fulfill these. In particular

Abstract Model transformations are essential elements of model-driven engineering (MDE) solutions, as they enable the automatic manipulation of models. MDE promotes the creation of domain-specific metamodels, but without proper reuse mechanisms, model transformations need to be developed from scratch for each new metamodel. In this paper, our goal is to understand whether transformation reuse across

Abstract The network functions virtualization (NFV) advent is making way for the rapid deployment of network services (NS) for telecoms. Automation of network service management is one of the main challenges currently faced by the NFV community. Explicitly defining a process for the design, deployment, and management of network services and automating it is therefore highly desirable and beneficial

Abstract Mastering the complexity of safety assurance for modern, software-intensive systems is challenging in several domains, such as automotive, robotics, and avionics. Model-based safety analysis techniques show promising results to handle this challenge by automating the generation of required artifacts for an assurance case. In this work, we adapt prominent approaches and propose to augment of

Abstract Web augmentation is a set of techniques allowing users to define and execute software which is dependent on the presentation layer of a concrete Web page. Through the use of specialized Web augmentation artifacts, the end users may satisfy several kinds of requirements that were not considered by the analysts, developers and stakeholders that built the application. Although some augmentation

Abstract Requirements are inherently prone to conflicts. Security, data-minimization, and fairness requirements are no exception. Importantly, undetected conflicts between such requirements can lead to severe effects, including privacy infringement and legal sanctions. Detecting conflicts between security, data-minimization, and fairness requirements is a challenging task, as such conflicts are context-specific

Abstract Modern user interfaces (UIs) are increasingly expected to be plastic, in the sense that they retain a constant level of usability, even when subjected to context changes at runtime. Self-adaptive user interfaces (SAUIs) have been promoted as a solution for context variability due to their ability to automatically adapt to the context-of-use at runtime. The development of SAUIs is a challenging

Abstract We present a model-based architecture for monitoring executions of models of real-time and embedded systems. This architecture is highly configurable and allows for the combination of various run-time monitoring tools, not only for observing the system execution, but also for interacting with it. Using a variety of case studies, we illustrate the use of the architecture for connecting the

Abstract Scalability in modeling has many facets, including the ability to build larger models and domain-specific languages (DSLs) efficiently. With the aim of tackling some of the most prominent scalability challenges in model-based engineering (MBE), the MONDO EU project developed the theoretical foundations and open-source implementation of a platform for scalable modeling and model management

Abstract We present transitive-closure-based model checking (TCMC): a symbolic representation of the semantics of computational tree logic with fairness constraints (CTLFC) for finite models in first-order logic with transitive closure (FOLTC). TCMC is an expression of the complete model checking problem for CTLFC as a set of constraints in FOLTC without induction, iteration, or invariants. We implement

Abstract Dynamic verification and validation (V&V) techniques are used to verify and validate the behavior of software systems early in the development process. In the context of model-driven engineering, such behaviors are usually defined using executable domain-specific modeling languages (xDSML). Many V&V techniques rely on execution traces to represent and analyze the behavior of executable models

Abstract The OMG standard Systems Modeling Language (SysML) has been on the market for about thirteen years. This standard is an extended subset of UML providing a graphical modeling language for designing complex systems by considering software as well as hardware parts. Over the period of thirteen years, many publications have covered various aspects of SysML in different research fields. The aim

Abstract In 2017 and 2018, two events were held—in Marburg, Germany, and San Vigilio di Marebbe, Italy, respectively—focusing on an analysis of the state of research, state of practice, and state of the art in model-driven engineering (MDE). The events brought together experts from industry, academia, and the open-source community to assess what has changed in research in MDE over the last 10 years

Abstract Model management techniques help tame the complexity caused by the many models used in large-scale software development; however, these techniques have focused on operators to manipulate individual models rather than entire collections of them. In this work, we begin to address this gap by adapting the widely used map, reduce and filter collection operators for collections of models represented

Abstract Industry 4.0 integrates cyber-physical systems with the Internet of Things to optimize the complete value-added chain. Successfully applying Industry 4.0 requires the cooperation of various stakeholders from different domains. Domain-specific modeling languages promise to facilitate their involvement through leveraging (domain-specific) models to primary development artifacts. We aim to assess

Abstract The use of code quality control platforms for analysing source code is increasingly gaining attention in the developer community. These platforms are prepared to parse and check source code written in a variety of general-purpose programming languages. The emergence of domain-specific languages enables professionals from different areas to develop and describe problem solutions in their disciplines

Abstract Context. Many organizations are adopting the COSMIC method to size software products for estimating and controlling their development costs and performances. Using a functional size measurement method requires specialized expertise and can be time-consuming. Objectives. Since UML is the de facto industrial modeling language standard for object-oriented systems, it is very useful to understand

Abstract The model-driven development of systems involves multiple models, metamodels and transformations, and relationships between them. A bidirectional transformation (bx) is usually defined as a means of maintaining consistency between “two (or more)” models. This includes cases where one model may be generated from one or more others, as well as more complex (“symmetric”) cases where models record

In model-driven development of safety-critical systems (like automotive, avionics or railways), well-formedness of models is repeatedly validated in order to detect design flaws as early as possible. In many industrial tools, validation rules are still often implemented by a large amount of imperative model traversal code which makes those rule implementations complicated and hard to maintain. Additionally

To manage the rapidly growing complexity of software development, abstraction and automation have been recognised as powerful means. Among the techniques pushing for them, model-driven engineering has gained increasing attention from industry for, among others, the possibility to automatically generate code from models. To generate fully executable code, models should describe complex behaviours. While

Feature models are frequently used to capture the knowledge about configurable software systems and product lines. However, feature modeling of large-scale systems is challenging as models are needed for diverse purposes. For instance, feature models can be used to reflect the perspectives of product management, technical solution architecture, or product configuration. Furthermore, models are required

Even though considerable progress regarding the technical perspective on modeling and supporting business processes has been achieved, it appears that the human perspective is still often left aside. In particular, we do not have an in-depth understanding of how process models are inspected by humans, what strategies are taken, what challenges arise, and what cognitive processes are involved. This

Business process models abstract complex business processes by representing them as graphical models. Their layout, as determined by the modeler, may have an effect when these models are used. However, this effect is currently not fully understood. In order to systematically study this effect, a basic set of measurable key visual features is proposed, depicting the layout properties that are meaningful

Considerable amounts of data, including process events, are collected and stored by organisations nowadays. Discovering a process model from such event data and verification of the quality of discovered models are important steps in process mining. Many discovery techniques have been proposed, but none of them combines scalability with strong quality guarantees. We would like such techniques to handle

The specification of workloads is required in order to evaluate performance characteristics of application systems using load testing and model-based performance prediction. Defining workload specifications that represent the real workload as accurately as possible is one of the biggest challenges in both areas. To overcome this challenge, this paper presents an approach that aims to automate the extraction

Nowadays, business processes are increasingly supported by IT services that produce massive amounts of event data during the execution of a process. These event data can be used to analyze the process using process mining techniques to discover the real process, measure conformance to a given process model, or to enhance existing models with performance information. Mapping the produced events to activities

An enterprise database contains a global, integrated, and consistent representation of a company's data. Multi-level modeling facilitates the definition and maintenance of such an integrated conceptual data model in a dynamic environment of changing data requirements of diverse applications. Multi-level models transcend the traditional separation of class and object with clabjects as the central modeling

Formalization is becoming more common in all stages of the development of information systems, as a better understanding of its benefits emerges. Classification systems are ubiquitous, no more so than in domain modeling. The classification pattern that underlies these systems provides a good case study of the move toward formalization in part because it illustrates some of the barriers to formalization

Streaming model transformations represent a novel class of transformations to manipulate models whose elements are continuously produced or modified in high volume and with rapid rate of change. Executing streaming transformations requires efficient techniques to recognize activated transformation rules over a live model and a potentially infinite stream of events. In this paper, we propose foundations

The capability of UML profiles to serve as annotation mechanism has been recognized in both research and industry. Today's modeling tools offer profiles specific to platforms, such as Java, as they facilitate model-based engineering approaches. However, considering the large number of possible annotations in Java, manually developing the corresponding profiles would only be achievable by huge development

Fast-changing hardware and software technologies in addition to larger and more specialized customer bases demand software tailored to meet very diverse requirements. Software development approaches that aim at capturing this diversity on a single consolidated platform often require large upfront investments, e.g., time or budget. Alternatively, companies resort to developing one variant of a software