Recovering Activity Diagrams from Object Oriented Code: an MDA-based Approach

The success of system modernization depends on the existence of technical frameworks for information integration and tool interoperation like the Model Driven Architecture (MDA). Reverse engineering techniques play a crucial role in system modernization. This paper describes how to reverse engineering activity diagrams from object oriented code in the MDA context focusing on transformations at model and metamodel levels. A framework to reverse engineering MDA models from object oriented code that distinguishes three different abstraction levels linked to models, metamodels and formal specifications, is described. At model level, transformations are based on static and dynamic analysis. At metamodel level, transformations are specified as OCL contracts between MOF (Meta Object Facility) metamodels which control the consistency of these transformations. The level of formal specification includes algebraic specifications of MOF metamodels and metamodelbased transformations. This paper analyzes a recovery process of activity diagrams from Java code by applying static and dynamic analysis and show a formalization of this process in terms of MOF metamodels.