Model Driven Development: Implementing a New Software Development Paradigm in Computer Science and Engineering Courses

Model Driven Development (MDD) is the first truly new paradigm for software development in 50 years. Since the advent of block-structured and procedural languages in the 1950s software has been developed using if-then-else control constructs, do-while and for loops for iteration, and subroutine calls. With MDD software is developed by specifying a high-level, abstract model of the application, typically in a language such as UML (Unified Modeling Language) and then generating the code through a series of automated, pattern-driven transformations. Ideally, all the application code could be generated from the model; in practice, with today’s technology, only about 70% of the code can be produced in this manner; the rest must be hand coded within the framework produced by the model. Just as programming in a high-level language requires such tools as a compiler to translate the program into executable code, the MDD paradigm requires tools to translate the UML model into code that can then be compiled and executed. During the Fall 2003 term we applied the MDD paradigm using Compuware’s OptimalJTM MDD development tool to projects in our Capstone Software Engineering Project course. In the course the students developed requirements for a J2EE type application (typically an on-line store). Working in teams, they constructed a UML model for the application, primarily the class diagram, but also including the use case models and sequence diagrams. OptimalJ was used to build a first prototype and then the prototype was improved through several iterations by refining the business rules and improving the web-page presentation. Testing was integrated with the development throughout the development process. An interesting challenge was how to effectively use teams in developing the software. The MDD paradigm and supporting software will be used in two Spring 2004 courses, the Capstone Software Engineering Project course and a Database System Design course.