Metamodelling for Software Engineering

This book focuses on metamodelling as a discipline, exploring its foundations, techniques and results. It presents a comprehensive metamodel that covers process, product and quality issues under a common framework.

Issues covered include:

• An explanation of what metamodelling is and why it is necessary in the context of software engineering.
• Basic concepts and principles of traditional metamodelling, and some existing results of this approach.
• Problems associated with traditional approaches to Metamodelling are discussed, alongside an exploration of possible solutions and alternative approaches.
• Advanced topics such as the extension of the object-oriented paradigm for metamodelling purposes or the foundations of powertype-based tool development will be studied.
• Finally, a comprehensive case study is introduced and developed, showing how to use many of the concepts explained in the previous chapters.

This book provides a comprehensive conceptual framework for metamodelling and includes case studies and exercises which will demonstrate practical uses of metamodelling. For lecturers and educators, the book provides a layered repository of contents, starting from the basics of metamodelling in the first chapters, through specific issues such as trans-layer control or non-strict approaches, up to advanced topics such as universal powertyping or extensions to the object-oriented paradigm. The book also serves as an in-depth reference guide to features and technologies to consider when developing in-house software development methods or customising and adopting off-the-shelf ones. Software tool developers and vendors can benefit from the book by finding in it a comprehensive guide to the implementation of frameworks and toolsets for computer-aided software modelling and development.

本書專注於作為一門學科的元模型，探討其基礎、技術和成果。它提出了一個全面的元模型，涵蓋了過程、產品和質量問題，並在一個共同的框架下進行討論。

其中涵蓋的問題包括：
- 解釋元模型在軟體工程背景下的定義和必要性。
- 傳統元模型的基本概念和原則，以及一些現有的研究成果。
- 討論傳統元模型方法所面臨的問題，並探索可能的解決方案和替代方法。
- 研究擴展面向元模型目的的面向對象範式或基於強類型的工具開發基礎等高級主題。
- 最後，引入並開發了一個全面的案例研究，展示了如何應用前幾章中解釋的許多概念。

本書提供了一個全面的元模型概念框架，並包含案例研究和練習，以展示元模型的實際應用。對於講師和教育工作者來說，本書提供了一個分層的內容庫，從第一章的元模型基礎知識開始，逐步深入特定問題，如跨層控制或非嚴格方法，直到高級主題，如通用強類型或面向對象範式的擴展。本書還作為一本深入參考指南，提供了在開發內部軟體開發方法或自定義和採用現成方法時應考慮的功能和技術。軟體工具開發人員和供應商可以從本書中獲益，因為它提供了一個全面的指南，用於實施計算機輔助軟體建模和開發的框架和工具集。