Systematic Mapping Study of Model Transformations for Concrete Problems Edouard Batot, Houari Sahraoui, Eugene Syriani, Paul Molins and Wael Sboui Dépt. I.R.O., Université de Montréal Rather, we focus on some of the exciting and challenging avenues that lie ahead for future work in this rapidly growing research and practitioner community

Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study 28/11/2018 Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study Overview Introduction Systematic Mapping Process Selection Process Results Study Results Conclusion

Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study 28/11/2018 Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study Introduction Model transformation Core requirement in MDE Significantly growing interest in the last decade Model transformations used in industry and academia Defining model transformations difficult to classify as a research or practical/development activity? Study the maturity of model transformations in the MDE community Do I have any chance to publish a model transformation definition/implementation? If yes, is there any under-investigated sub-fields? Rather, we focus on some of the exciting and challenging avenues that lie ahead for future work in this rapidly growing research and practitioner community As a new PhD in SE, and specifically in MDE, do I have any chance to get my new MM/MT published in conference/journal ? Or will it fall fatally in the workshop track ?

Systematic Mapping study 28/11/2018 Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study Systematic Mapping study As defined by Petersen et al. in Systematic mapping studies in software engineering, EASE’08 Definition of Research Questions Conduct Search Screening of Papers Keywording using Abstracts Data Extraction and Mapping Process Review Scope (Query) All papers Relevant Papers Classification Scheme Systematic Map Focus: published model transformations for concrete problems

Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study 28/11/2018 Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study Systematic Map Research questions RQ1: What are the trends in concrete model transformations? RQ2: What are the characteristics of these transformations? From research questions to a query with keywords A query with “MDE”, “transformation”, “mapping” and their variants and synonyms Covered publication period 2005 to 2014 Data sources Automatic search in Scopus database (7M+ papers) Manual addition of all papers from ECMFA, ICMT, MoDELS, SoSym Scopus : 58M records 7.2M conf/journal papers 44000 books Didn’t index papers from Springer, we added manually the 4 main Springer forums specialized in models at large.

Flow of information through SMP 28/11/2018 Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study Flow of information through SMP Search Screening 591 papers manually added 1135 full papers for screening 1187 documents from Scopus filters 643 documents removed

Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study 28/11/2018 Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study Screening Candidate documents are screened (title+abstract) to identify relevant papers Each candidate paper is screened by two reviewers Conflict resolution by (1) physical meetings and (2) senior arbitration Inclusion criteria Exclusion criteria About model transformation Concrete aspect of the transformation mentioned in the abstract Not a full paper Not a software engineering paper Not about model transformation Not a concrete transformation Physical meeting, if no consensus, senior arbitration

Flow of information through SMP 28/11/2018 Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study Flow of information through SMP Search Screening Classification scheme 591 papers from specialized forums 1135 full papers for screening 95 full papers 82 full papers considered for systematic map 1187 documents from Scopus Screening & conflict resolution Filters 1040 rejected full papers 13 rejected with reason 643 documents removed Not a concrete MT as main contribution

Classification Scheme 28/11/2018 Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study Classification Scheme 82 papers included for systematic mapping Classification scheme constructed from keywording abstracts + prior knowledge 8 classification categories Intent: under which intent category does the transformation fall ? [1] Scope: exogenous, outplace or inplace Transformation kind: does the transformation operate on the structure, mainly the syntax, or on the behavior, mainly the semantics, of the models involved? Metamodel(s) kind: general-purpose (GPL) vs domain-specific (DSL) Transformation language: dedicated, programming or another Model kind: are involved models industrial, publicly available, or toy example? Orientation: industry or academia Validation: formal, empiric or none Meta info: intent/scope/transfo kind Specification: input/process/output Context relation: orientation/validation [1] Lúcio, L et al. (2014). “Model transformation intents and their properties.” Int. J. on Soft. and Systems Modeling.

Study Results: General trend 28/11/2018 Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study Study Results: General trend General number of papers Reach a peack in 2010 General forums Peak in 2009 Specialized forums Peak in 2012 Transition from main to specialized forums

Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study 28/11/2018 Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study Study Results: Intent Focus on three main intents : Language translation Refinement[1] Semantic definition[2] Others had been more investigated with other technics ? Translation Refinement : code synthesis (De Marco) Semantics : semantics of a MM into another one : (Wagelaar et al., 2012) [1] Di Marco, A. et al (2013). Model-driven approach to Agilla Agent generation. In Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conf [2] Wagelaar, D et al (2012). Translational Semantics of a Co-evolution Specific Language with the EMF Transformation Virtual Machine. In Theory and Practice of Model Transformations

Study Results: Scope and transformation kind 28/11/2018 Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study Study Results: Scope and transformation kind Mainly exogenous Mainly structural “one can manipulate time information just like structural information” [1] Lack of endogenous/behavioral studies ? [1] Gîrba, T. et al (2005). “Using Meta-Model Transformation to Model Software Evolution.” Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science, 137(3).

Study Results: Metamodel kind and language used 28/11/2018 Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study Study Results: Metamodel kind and language used Modeling in a general language Ecore – XML – PétriNets… Transforming with a dedicated language QVT – ATL… “Other” as an ad-hoc language for one specific transformation[3] [3] Yue, T. et al. (2012). “Bridging the Gap between Requirements and Aspect State Machines to Support Non-functional Testing: Industrial Case Studies”. In Proc. of the ECMFA

Study Results: Validation, Model kind and orientation 28/11/2018 Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study Study Results: Validation, Model kind and orientation Does the study contain a validation ? Empirical ? Formal ? None ? Here lays the challenge to the wide adoption.

Study Results: Validation, Model kind and orientation 28/11/2018 Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study Study Results: Validation, Model kind and orientation Here lays the challenge to the wide adoption.

Study Results: Validation, Model kind and Orientation 28/11/2018 Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study Study Results: Validation, Model kind and Orientation Does the study contain a validation ? Empirical ? Formal ? None ? What kind of model does the study use Industrial or Publicly available models or a Toy example ? Check paper for examples.

Study Results: Validation, Model kind and Orientation 28/11/2018 Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study Study Results: Validation, Model kind and Orientation Here lays the challenge to the wide adoption.

Study Results: Validation, Model kind and Orientation 28/11/2018 Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study Study Results: Validation, Model kind and Orientation Does the study contain a validation ? Empirical ? Formal ? None ? Does the study use Industrial or Publicly available models or a Toy example ? Is the study industrial or academical ? Empirical studies more common. Repositories are growing, industrial data still scarce. Academics use more and more indus data. Two ways to involve industry: using their data, or their interest (only) (it’s already appealing) Using data to validate stringly, using interest to show the interest !

Study Results: Validation, Model kind and Orientation 28/11/2018 Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study Study Results: Validation, Model kind and Orientation

Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study 28/11/2018 Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study Conclusion Has model transformation community reached a maturity? Decreasing rate of publication Focused on structure Lack of endogenous studies Use of general purpose metamodels, few DSLs Increasing number of validations Is it still relevant to publish papers about model transformation? Less and less the case More studies to confirm the trend

Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study 28/11/2018 Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study Future work Are other MDE type of artefacts following the same trend ? Papers about new metamodel or new UML Profile used to be popular not long ago. What’s next ? Is validation relevant w.r.t. the maturity of a field ?

Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study 28/11/2018 Concrete Model transformation : a Systematic mapping study Majority of academic ; use toy examples.