Support for quality metrics in metamodelling

Abstract

The maturity of Model Driven Engineering facilitates the development of domain specific languages. Their creation relies on the definition of metamodels, but also on their corresponding visual notations. One can wonder about the quality of any new language, which can result in inunderstandable diagrams with inappropriate notations. Then our goal is to provide indicators about the quality of notations thanks to metrics. In this paper, we present functions that are necesary to calculate these metrics in a metamodeling environment. Then we introduce how metrics are integrated in a modeling environment named ModX.

Collaboro: a collaborative (meta) modeling tool

“…Several works have applied them to specific DSMLs (e.g., Genon, Heymans & Amyot (2011b) or Le Pallec & Dupuy-Chessa (2013)). Nevertheless, none of them has tried to implement such metrics in a way that can be applied generically to any DSML.…”

“…Originally based on the cognitive dimensions framework (Blackwell et al, 2001;Green, 1989;Green & Petre, 1996), Moody's principles address their theoretical and practical limitations. While these principles provide a framework to evaluate visual notations, other works have put them into practice by analyzing DSMLs (Genon, Amyot & Heymans, 2011a;Genon, Heymans & Amyot, 2011b;Moody & van Hillegersberg, 2009;Le Pallec & Dupuy-Chessa, 2013) or complement the use of Moody's principles with polls (Figl et al, 2010) also, thus allowing end-user feedback and involvement during the design process of a visual notation. However, the previous works are usually centered to specific DSMLs and do not provide mechanisms to be calculated to any DSML as our approach addresses.…”

Peer Review #2 of "Collaboro: a collaborative (meta) modeling tool (v0.1)"

“…DSMLs (Genon et al, 2011b,a;Moody and Hillegersberg, 2009;Le Pallec and Dupuy-Chessa, 2013) or complement the use of Moody's principles with polls (Figl et al, 2010) also, thus allowing end-user feedback and involvement during the design process of a visual notation. However, the previous works are usually centered to specific DSMLs and do not provide mechanisms to be calculated to any DSML as our approach addresses.…”

A framework for evaluating the quality of modelling languages in MDE environments A framework for evaluating the quality of modelling languages in MDE environments

“…To date, there are twenty-nine works that provide an explicit definition of quality; of these, only nine works have an associated validation procedure (Challenger et al, 2015;Espinilla et al, 2011;Grobshtein and Dori, 2011;Hindawi et al, 2009;Lange and Chaudron, 2005;Le Pallec and Dupuy-Chessa, 2013;López-Fernández et al, 2014;Maes and Poels, 2007;Merilinna, 2005). Using the classification of evaluation techniques that were previously proposed in (Siau and Rossi, 1998) on the nine identified works, we found five works that reported laboratory experiments, two works that used metrics, and other individual works that used survey, metamodelling, and case studies.…”