Model driven architecture

Draft

Definition

“Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) is a software design approach that its sponsor, the Object Management Group (OMG)[1], officially launched in 2001. MDA supports model-driven engineering of software systems. MDA provides a set of guidelines for structuring specifications expressed as models. The MDA approach defines system functionality using a platform-independent model (PIM) using an appropriate Domain Specific Language. Then, given a Platform Definition Model (PDM) corresponding to CORBA, DotNet, the Web, etc., the PIM is translated to one or more platform-specific models (PSMs) that computers can run.” (Wikipedia, retrieved 19:59, 28 June 2007 (MEST).

Model driven architecture is a model-driven engineering (MDE) approach that uses three types of models:

1. CIM - computation independent model that describes how a system should be behave in terms of a language that is appropriate for a user (e.g. an educational designer, a business analyst, etc.)
2. PIM - platform independent model that describes a CIM in computational terms, i.e. a language that makes sense to a given class of computer persons but is independent from specific computer technology
3. PSM - platform specific model that links PIM specification with specific information about a specific platform and it should be executable.

Standards

The MDA model is related to multiple standards, including:

• UML
• Meta-Object Facility (MOF) (Wikipedia)
• XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) (Wikipedia)
• Enterprise Distributed Object Computing (Wikipedia), a UML profile.

In education

• See ModX for an example

Links

• Model-driven architecture (Wikipedia)
• Model-driven engineering (Wikipedia)
• Planet MDE - Model Driven Engineering