Research in Progress

The research project is currently working on the following research topics:

  1. Development of a new way of metamodeling and method engineering through metamodeling by example and use of alternative representation paradigms in specifying and capturing metamodels. Other areas we are looking at include the use of reference models, method library management principles and large scale organization of method components.
  2. Further refinement of a conceptual metamodeling language called GOPRR (Graph, Object, Property, Role, Relationship) so that it can cater for process and actor models and will provide richer integrity checking mechanisms through a rule modeling language. We are also examining a modeling mechanism that will allow the use of views in relation to the repository and the use of more complex representations through 3D and simulation. At the same time we shall also examine an implementation of a consistent and unified type mechanism which will feature triggers, hypertext and multimedia data types in the metaCASE environment.
  3. Enhancing the current tool set with improved and extended tool functionality including extensions to the matrix editor (multiple levels, hierarchical axes, use of triangular or diagonal matrices), provision of drag and drop functionality between tools, links to technical agents (spreadsheets, project management tools), process modeling and enaction tool, expanding the query editor functionality.
  4. Concurrent engineering: in principle metaCASE which involves schema evolution and change propagation. Another area is to analyze the use of versioning mechanisms and various distributed replication mechanisms in updating distributed repositories.
  5. Empirical testing and assessment of the suitability of different representation paradigms for metamodeling and development of a contingency based scheme to help in choosing a representation paradigm.
  6. Examination of method engineering principles and their use in a number of software organizations, further refinement of the theory of incremental method engineering.

MetaPHOR Home Page
Pages created by Steven Kelly. Last update July 5, 1999 by Jouni Huotari.