Call for Papers

*The First Workshop on Behavioural Modelling in Model-Driven
Architecture (BM-MDA) http://www.ou.nl/bm-mda
University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands. 23 June 2009*

In collaboration with the Fifth European Conference on Model Driven Architecture
Foundations and Applications http://www.utwente.nl/projecten/ecmda2009/

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The Model-driven Architecture (MDA) features the use of different kinds
of models during the software development process and automatic
transformations between them. One of the main ideas is the separation
between models that are platform independent (PIMs) and models that are
platform specific (PSM). From these models, some parts of the final code
can be automatically generated. Ultimately, the goal is to generate the
complete software fully automatically from these models.

To date, the fully automatic generation of the code from models is still
a dream and, if it works at all, restricted to specific application
areas. One of the main obstacles is the lack of adequate models for the
behaviour of the software and of mechanisms to integrate behaviour
models with structural models and with other behaviour models. There are
different approaches for modelling behaviour in the UML:

* Use UML Behavioural State Machines ("Executable UML"), which have
semantics that borrow largely from work in real-time systems.
* Use OCL to add behavioural information (such as pre- and
post-conditions) to other, more structural, types of UML model
* Not include behaviour in the PIM at all, but instead add it as
code to structural code skeletons later in the MDA process
* Strengthen the semantics of other UML notations (in particular,
Sequence Diagrams) so that these can be used to capture complete
behavioural information as part of the PIM.
* Transform Class and Sequence Diagrams into graphs using
graph-transformation rules in order to create a set of graphs that
represent the state-space of the bahaviour. Then, model checking
techniques are applied on this state-space to verify certain
properties of the UML models.

Although there are many different approaches for modelling behaviour, none of
them enjoys the same universality as the UML class diagrams do for the
structural parts of the software.

Further evidence of confusion about PIM level behavioural modelling is the lack
of agreement on what basic behavioural abstractions are required, and how these
behavioural abstractions should be used:

* Does the concept of "Component" have meaning at the PIM level, and
how should it be defined?
* Does the concept of "Active Objects" (as used in many real-time
modelling techniques) have meaning at the PIM level? And does it
only apply to real-time system modelling?
* What forms of composition should be used between behavioural
abstractions in the context of MDA?
* What role should Aspects play in PIM level behavioral modelling?

This workshop brings together people from academia and industry using MDA and
related approaches and, in particular, is concerned with behaviour models and
their integration with MDA. We are interested in submissions on topics relating
to MDA and PIM level behaviour modelling, including:

* Ontologies of behavioural abstractions and their applicability;
* Modelling languages that aim to capture PIM level behaviour;
* Composition and decomposition of behavioural models;
* Application of process algebraic techniques;
* Application of formal reasoning to PIM level behaviour models;
* Translation of PIM level behaviour to PSM and code;
* Method and Tool Support for building PIM level behavioural models;
* Case studies that relate to the use of PIM level behavioural
modelling.

The purpose is to better understand the problem with behavioural models, what is
needed to adequately model behaviour, and what is still lacking for universally
modelling the behaviour of software in such a way that the code can
automatically be generated from them. Based on that, the outcome of the workshop
will be a clearer vision of how modelling notations for behaviour and the
interfaces to structural models should look like.


Submissions:

We ask for papers of minimum four pages and maximum 8 pages in the ACM format
http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/proceedings-templates.

Please send the pdf-version of your submissions to ella.roubtsova-AT-ou.nl. Each
paper will be reviewed by three members of the program committee.
The proceedings will be published as a volume of the ACM DL with an ISBN.

Important dates:
Paper Submission: April 5, 2009
Authors Notification: May 3, 2009
Camera-ready copies of accepted papers: May 24, 2009
Workshop: June 23, 2009

Organizing Committee:
Mehmet Aksit. TU Twente, the Netherlands
Ekkart Kindler, Technical University of Denmark,
Ella Roubtsova, Open University of the Netherlands,
Ashley McNeile, Metamaxim Ltd, UK

Program committee:
Mehmet Aksit. TU Twente, the Netherlands
Michael Jackson, Open University, UK
Ekkart Kindler, Technical University of Denmark
Reiko Heckel, University of Leicester, UK
Dominik Stein, University of Essen, Germany
Luis Gomes, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
Ashley McNeile, Metamaxim Ltd, UK
Louis Birta, University of Ottawa, Canada
Stewart Robinson, University of Warwick, UK
Joćo M. Fernandes, Universidade do Minho, Portugal
Ella Roubtsova, Open University of the Netherlands
Stefan Hanenberg University of Duisburg-Essen,Germany