MODELWARE, an Information Society Technologies project funded under Framework Programme 6, has completed development of a Model-Driven Development (MDD) software development platform that will significantly reduce the complexity of engineering software systems.
The platform and many of its components, libraries and adapters are open-source, and are now available free on the project’s website.
"MDD improves developers' productivity by automating production of most software artefacts, such as tests, documentation and code," says project coordinator Philippe Millot of Thales Research & Technology in France.
MODELWARE, which began in mid-2004 and ends this month, combines innovations in modelling, tool development, methodologies and standardisation, into a platform for large-scale deployment of model-driven development.
Software developers have to design systems that can cope with a range of different environments, hardware systems, languages, country-specific standards and other specifications such as safety. "Until now, re-engineering for a particular platform, such as Windows or Linux, required working in the low-level code of that platform. This required specialisation, adding to costs and production time," explains Millot.
MODELWARE takes the low-level code of an environment and draws a model that employs a much higher level of specification and design abstractions.
With a model in hand, developers can discuss what the new system should do, and test their ideas with advanced simulation tools early in the design process. "The models are visual representations, but they are also machine readable and executable. So developers can just push a button that converts their models into system code,” says Millot.
Most new software systems today reuse components of existing systems, meaning that initial development often accounts for less than 25 percent of the total design effort. "MODELWARE saves time and allows better use of technical know-how because developers work with up-to-date models of existing systems, instead of outdated documents," Millot says.
The MODELWARE team has specified a method for managing major upgrades of tools, techniques or skills also.
Now MODELWARE's 19 partners, including users, tool vendors, academia and consultancy companies in eight European countries, are working to ensure the tools and methods are adopted by industry.
France Telecom, for example, is using the platform to test a voice application employing 3G telephones to make remote repairs, while Thales is testing the MDD approach for redesigning air-traffic management systems, and is also applying MODELWARE results to business applications for SMEs.
MODELWARE finishes on 30th September 2006, and the project team is starting a follow-up project, MODELPLEX to apply MODELWARE's methods and tools to complex and mission-critical systems such as the internet, major transportation and security systems.
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