Model matching for trace link generation in model-driven software development

With the advent of Model-driven Software Engineering, the advantage of generating trace links between source and target model elements automatically, eases the problem of creating and maintaining traceability data. Yet, an existing transformation engine as in the above case is not always given in model-based development, (i.e. when transformations are implemented manually) and can not be leveraged for the sake of trace link generation through the transformation mapping. We tackle this problem by using model matching techniques to generate trace links for arbitrary source and target models. Thereby, our approach is based on a novel, language-agnostic concept defining three similarity measures for matching. To achieve this, we exploit metamodel matching techniques for graph-based model matching. Furthermore, we evaluate our approach according to large-scale SAP business transformations and the ATL Zoo.