Synopses & Reviews
In part the book creates and motivates the notion of metamodelling and how it can be used to standardise the creation of industry-strength design. At its heart, the book presents an analysis of the main object-oriented design methodologies, including: Booch, OMT, Coad, and Martin/Odell. Based on these descriptions, a proposal is made for a core metamodel framework into which the leading methodologies may be fitted. As a result, software engineers and software managers will find this a valuable "road map" in the future development of software standards.
Synopsis
Object technology is maturing rapidly. One sign of that is the formality of the discussions that occur all around the world: at conferences, in newsgroups, in industry developer groups and in academe. One face of formality is metamodelling: seeking the model of the model that gives the rules by which the model itself is constructed. In OT terms, it means seeking the underpinning rules in a methodology in which, for instance, it is suggested we depict an aggregate structure using one particular notation. The questions that need answering are the semantics of that relation ship and the constraints; i. e., when and how it is allowable and what values/constructs are not admissible. In the past, these rules and constraints have been merely written down in textbooks and methodology manuals. Unfortunately, despite the plethora of au thoring and word processing programs available, this leads to in consistencies when cross-checks are not assiduously undertaken. There are few explict signs of metamodels in the published OOAD texts. In this book, we describe how we found those metamodels implicitly written into the methods. We formalized each of these in exactly the same way, using the same metalevel concepts and metarelationships. This book describes the fruits of those metamodelling labours, which we undertook as objectively as possible in 1995. In 1996 we then worked with the individual methodologists to ensure that we had not misinterpreted any par ticular metamodels."
Synopsis
The COMMA (Common Object Methodology Metamodel Architecture) project is a development towards the establishment of a set of open standards for object-oriented programming. In part the book's goal is to create and motivate the notion of metamodelling and how it can be used to standardize the creation of industry-strength design.
Table of Contents
The methodology "explosion". What does industry require? Standardized methodologies? Description of the COMMA project. The derived metamodels. An embryonic core. Conclusions and recommendations. References. Index.