Model Merging Falls Short of Software Engineering Needs

The successful evolution of team developed software—where multiple parties modify system artifacts concurrently—mandates a process in which change and conflict resolution are suitably addressed. It follows then, that in a collaborative Model Driven Engineering (MDE) environment, support for the reliable merging of models is essential. Unfortunately, an examination of model merging in some of today’s integrated MDE tools reveals that they suffer from a number of important shortcomings that easily lead to surprising or even counterintuitive outcomes. We examine some of these shortcomings, and provide recommendations for future tool behavior.