MDA – Model Driven Architecture

Olivier Riboux

Overview

What is MDA? The Challenges MDA addresses Developing in the MDA Benefits / Conclusion Case Study: Magnet Communications Inc. Questions

What is Model Driven Architecture?

MDA is defined and developed by the OMG since March 2001.

Main ideas:– Addresses the complete system development life cycle– Separate specification from implementation– Specify a system that is independent of a platform– Transform a platform-independent (PIM) system

specification into a specific platform (PSM)– Code generation– Applies directly to the mix :

Programming language Network Operating system Middleware

The Challenges MDA addresses

Portability Cross-Platform Operability Platform Independence Domain Specific Productivity

System Development Lifecycle Process

Foundational Concepts of the MDA

Developing in the MDA

PIM – Platform Independent Model(PIM)

represents business functionality and behavior without technology details

PSM– Applies a standard mapping to

create or generate a Platform Specific Model (PSM) from the PIM

Code Model– Create or generate the code for

PSM

PlatformIndependent

Model

CodeModel

PlatformSpecificModel

Platform Independence using MDA

THE Difference with other software modeling tools

Classic Approach:The developers must comprehend:-problem domain-Platform features

MDA:Independence between the:-Application Developers-Platform Experts-Domain Experts

MDA Specifications: MOF

MDA is about expressing data and process precisely using formal languages.

How do we keep up with evolving languages or new languages?How do we transform models from one language to another?

Solution: Meta Object Facility

Benefits – The CIO problem solver

Achieve Greater Productivity in Creating Software Reduced Cost Reduced Development Time Increased ROI Improved Application Quality Rapid Inclusion of Emerging Technologies Increases stability and lifetime Reduces complexity

References

For more information on the subject:

OMG’s MDA Website- www.omg.org/mda

Great articles to get introduced to MDA- http://www.jaxmagazine.com/itr/online_artikel/psecom,id,548,nodeid,147.html

Case Study: Magnet Communications Inc.

Description: provider of secure, Web-based business banking solutions for financial institutions.

Project: use of J2EE as its target technology to develop a new system for small-business cash management.

Problems:- quality of the code not optimal- coding consisted of cut-and-paste operations in

order to replicate the design pattern applied to the code

Case Study: Magnet Communications Inc.

Solution: - hired Metanology Inc. as a supplier for UML code

generation- Created all the PIMs while developing small portion

of the application (Loan Package)- Defined a plug-in that converts CORBA IDL into a

fully annotated UML models- Applied the PIMs to these models to generate all of

the infrastructure code

Case Study: Magnet Communications Inc.

Benefits:

- the PIM and UML models generate over 90% of the total lines-of-code in applications where MDA is used

- no errors are introduced from cut and paste replication of the patterns

Questions?