Model-Driven Development - Piecing together the MDA Jigsaw Puzzle

The Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) paradigm is well-known and widely used in the field of model-based software development. However, there are still some issues that are problematic and that need to be dealt with carefully. In this paper we present a metaphor that aims to help to understand how MDA grows in complexity as problems faced become more difficult or ‘wicked’ and how a method designed to be powerful, flexible and MDA-compliant can eventually become, in effect, a ‘jigsaw puzzle’. This jigsaw puzzle is not merely the result of having a collection of methodological ‘pieces’ with routes across them, but also arises as a result of the criteria underlying the MDA abstraction layers. We compare MDA to other research fields such as Human-Computer Interaction, Model Management and Method Engineering, and we use as an example the OO-Method, a software development method based on MDA-compliant model transformations. We focus on a methodological piece that is conceived to allow the specification of interaction requirements by means of interface sketches. These sketches are supported by a task model that serves as a sound basis for formalization and allows the application of model transformation in order to obtain subsequent models. A case study illustrates the requirements capture method together with the software development process defined by the OO-Method. The whole process presented in the case study represents one of the possible routes that can be followed when developing a software system with the OO-Method.