Transition to model-driven engineering: what is revolutionary, what remains the same?

A considerable amount of research has been dedicated to bring the vision of model-driven engineering (MDE) to fruition. However, the practical experiences of organizations that transition to MDE are underreported. This paper presents a case study of the organizational consequences experienced by one large organization after transitioning to MDE. We present four findings from our case study. First, MDE brings development closer to the domain experts, but software engineers are still necessary for many tasks. Second, though MDE presents an opportunity to achieve incremental improvements in productivity, the organizational challenges of software development remain unchanged. Third, switching to MDE may disrupt the balance of the organizational structure, creating morale and power problems. Fourth, the cultural and institutional infrastructure of MDE is underdeveloped, and until MDE becomes better established, transitioning organizations need to exert additional adoption efforts. We offer several observations of relevance to researchers and practitioners based on these findings.