Model Driven Architecture: A Research Review for Information Systems Educators Teaching Software Development

The increasing complexity of business systems, the accelerating pace of technological change, and the highly competitive business environment are overwhelming software development methodologies that have stayed essentially the same for the last fifty years. Model Driven Architecture (MDA) is a current initiative by the Object Management Group that represents a major evolution in the way software is developed. There is growing consensus by the information systems community on the fundamental principals of MDA, but some critical elements are missing in the areas of transformation and system-behavior modeling. Agreement on standards and approaches in these areas will take some time, and substantial work remains before MDA can replace traditional, long-practiced methods and be considered a routine approach to software development. When this happens it has the potential to significantly improve the integration of customers into the software development lifecycle. Traditional development methodologies and the newer agile methods strive to overcome quality and delivery problems by emphasizing customer involvement and by attempting to move system validation activities (e.g. those concerned with confirming that the system will meet the customer’s needs) earlier in the development lifecycle. The adoption of an MDA approach will not change the role of customers in the development process or the nature of their activities; it will not change what customers do. However, it can significantly change when customers validate a system’s functionality. This paper will investigate these issues through a qualitative study using an interpretivist epistemology, and will form generalized conclusions about MDA.

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