NDT & METRICA V3

An Approach for Public Organizations based on Model Driven Engineering

M. J. Escalona,

J. J. Gutiérrez,

J. A. Ortega,

I. Ramos and

G. Aragón

University of Seville, Spain

everis, Spain

Keywords: Web Engineering, public administrations, Web Requirements, Métrica.

Abstract: In Spain, the Ministry of Public Administrations defined a methodological environment, named Métrica v3,

to develop software system in public administrations in Spain. External companies that work for public

administrations, internal software departments or software engineer have to follow the life cycle of Métrica

for developing their software systems. However, when Web systems are developed, Métrica could be

enriched with new approaches from the Web Engineering environment. In this paper, a fusion between

Métrica and NDT, a web approach for requirements treatment and analysis, is presented. This fusion is

being applying in real projects with very good results.

1 INTRODUCTION

In enterprise environments, the application of

software engineering is not yet a common practise.

However, everyday more companies and

organization apply software approaches in order to

develop more quality software.

In Spain, the Ministry of Public Administrations

defined a methodological environment named

Métrica (www.csi.map.es/csi/metrica3). In this

approach, a life cycle and a group of techniques and

models are defined in detail. Public organizations in

Spain follow Métrica in their internal project, which

are developed by themselves, but also they commit

their software suppliers to use the methodology.

On the other hand, in the last years, a high

number of software projects are developed in the

Web environment.

In this paper, a normalization of the requirements

treatment of Métrica is proposed. This normalization

based on the fusion of Métrica and NDT

(Navigational Development Techniques) (Escalona,

2004). NDT is a Model Driven Web Engineering

approach to deal with requirements in web software

projects, although it can be also applied in classic

projects. The fusion between both techniques offers

a suitable reference for Web software development

that is being applied in Seville in different real

projects.

In order to introduce the fusion and its

advantages, in section 2 and 3 Métrica and NDT are

described. In section 4, the approach of fusion is

analysed and, in section 5, the advantages and the

practical experience of this fusion are presented with

conclusions and future works.

2 MÉTRICA V3

Métrica is a methodological environment developed

by the Spanish Ministry of Public Administration. In

the last version of Métrica, V3, the object oriented

paradigm was included as an option of developed

and Métrica proposes to use UML (OMG, 2003) to

model different aspects in the life cycle. The life

cycle of Métrica v3 starts with the Information

System Planning (PSI) where the organization is

studied and the environment for developing and new

systems in the organization are defined.

When the PSI defines the necessity of a new

system, a viability study must be developed (EVS).

EVS is an optional phase but it is mandatory in big

and complex developments.

The next phases are mandatory for each system.

The first phase, the analysis phase (ASI) must detect

system requirements and analyse them in order to

define the scope of the system. After the analysis,

the design phase must be affronted (DSI). The next

phase is the construction of the system (CSI), where

the system is translated into the selected

programming language. And, finally, the

maintenance phase must be applied (MSI). For each

phase, Métrica defines tasks and objectives that must

be covered.

224

J. Escalona M., J. Gutiérrez J., A. Ortega J., Ramos I. and Aragón G. (2008).

NDT & METRICA V3 - An Approach for Public Organizations based on Model Driven Engineering.

In Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies, pages 224-227

DOI: 10.5220/0001516602240227

 SciTePress

Besides, Métrica offers a technique guide that can be

applied in each task.

Métrica is highly applied in Spain, mainly in

public administration. However, also private

companies use it because they have to follow their

public clients’ rules. Métrica is a very complex and

extensive approach. It offers a wide life cycle with a

wide number of techniques and tasks. However, for

companies, sometimes it is very complex to identify

which parts of Métrica must be used or what

products must be generated.

This problem is very relevant in the requirements

treatment because, in Métrica, only the use case

diagram technique (OMG, 2003) is proposed for this

phase. Use cases, mainly in complex environments,

are very ambiguous and they must be completed

with some description in order to save this

ambiguity (Insfran et al., 2002) (Vilain et al., 2002).

Besides, they are not enough to extract the necessary

information to get analysis models.

3 NDT: NAVIGATIONAL

DEVELOPMENT TECHNIQUES

NDT is a model-driven Web methodological process

focused on the requirements and the analysis phases.

NDT offers a systematic way to deal with the special

characteristic of the web environment. NDT is based

on the definition of formal metamodels, presented in

(Escalona, 2004), that allow to create derivation

relations between models. NDT takes this theoretic

base and enriches it with the necessary elements to

define a methodology: techniques, models,

methodological process, etc. in order to offer a

suitable context to be applied in real projects.

In this sense, NDT starts with the theoretic

definition of the requirements engineering

metamodels and it proposes a methodological

environment to drive the team in the capture,

definition and validation of requirements. With the

theoretic base of metamodels and relations, the next

phase is the analysis phase. In the analysis phase

three models are generated. (1) The conceptual

model that defines the static structure of the

information and its relations. (2) The navigational

model that defines how users can navigate through

the information. (3) The abstract interface model is

composed by a group of HTML and XML

prototypes that let validate the conceptual and

navigational models (Olsina, 2002).

However, the generation of these three models is

made in two phases. In the first one, analysis models

are generated systematically from the requirements

using the theoretic relations defined between

models. These models are named basic analysis

models. In these basic models, the analyst can make

some changes in order to make them more suitable,

getting the final analysis models.

NDT also normalizes the structure of the results

that must be developed during the requirements

engineering and the analysis phase because it offers

a complete definition of each obtained document.

In conclusion, NDT can be defined as a

methodology to the requirements and analysis

phases, the rest of the life cycle is dealt with other

approaches. NDT is offered to cover a gap in the

treatment of the first phases of the life cycle in the

Web Engineering (Escalona et al. 2007).

Finally, it is important to stick out that NDT has

an associated tool, named NDT-Tool (Escalona

2004) that supports all the life cycle of NDT. This

tool lets automate all the systematic processes of

NDT, applies all its techniques and gets the results

automatically.

4 FUSION OF METRICA

V3 & NDT

According to section 2, one of the main gaps of

Métrica is that it proposes use cases as the only

technique to deal with requirements and in complex

and big systems they are too ambiguous. NDT is an

approach based on UML that offers a

methodological environment to deal with

requirements. Métrica v3 offers the possibility of

working in the object oriented paradigm or in the

structured paradigm. Our fusion is focused in the

object oriented paradigm because NDT is

completely object oriented.

We propose an extension for ASI phase of

Métrica. NDT techniques and model-driven Web

engineering are fused to Métrica in order to get a

normalization of requirements. Focusing our work in

the ASI phase, Métrica proposes 11 activities. Each

of these activities will be redefined and enriched by

our approach. In figure 1 the ASI structure is

presented. Shadowed phases are not necessary for

object oriented development.

The fusion can be affronted easily using the

power of metamodels. Métrica assumes UML as a

modeller language for all its analysis models. UML

defines a metamodel for each model proposed in the

model language. By other side, NDT is based on a

set of metamodel, which are extensions of UML

metamodel. Using the power of the heritage, NDT

defines the same concepts than UML and some

concepts news. In this sense, NDT follows the idea

proposes in (Escalona & Koch, 2007), where the

power of metamodels are presented to fuse

approaches.

NDT & METRICA V3 - An Approach for Public Organizations based on Model Driven Engineering

225

The idea of extension is used to enrich Métrica in

each activity of ASI in three ways:

1- With new concepts.

2- With new techniques to deal with concepts.

3- With new normalization to represent

concepts.

In this section, each activity of ASI is presented

in detail and the extension of the fusion is described.

Figure 1: ASI tasks.

 System Definition

In this activity, Métrica propose to define the system

environment, the development team and the group of

standards and rules of the company that must be

used. Métrica proposes to use techniques like

interviews and use cases to define the system. NDT

proposes enriched it with the use of patterns. NDT

defines a specific pattern to collect system

objectives. Besides, it proposes to use another

requirements elicitation techniques like JAD,

Brainstorming, Concept Map, Checklist, etc.

(Escalona, 2004).

 Requirements Definition

In the second activity, Métrica proposes to elicit,

define and validate requirements. Techniques

proposes by Métrica are interviews, workshops and

use cases. NDT increases this activity with specific

techniques to elicit requirements, like JAD or

Brainstorming and with specific techniques to

validate them, like thesaurus, reviews and glossaries.

However, the most important contribution of NDT

in this activity is to offer a group of patterns to

define requirements and enriches use cases. In this

activity, Métrica proposes to get the requirements

catalogue. NDT offers a template for this document

in order to include all the necessities of the system.

Even, if NDT-Tool is used, the generation of the

requirements catalogue in pdf is an automatic process.

 Analysis Subsystems Identification

Analysing requirements, Métrica proposes in the

third activity to identify the different subsystems in

the system. For the object oriented paradigm,

Métrica uses the package diagram of UML for that

activity. NDT proposes use the same technique.

However, the generation of package in analysis is a

systematic task in NDT. Following the requirements

definition in patterns and applying model driven

engineering, NDT divides the system into two

packages: nature and normal classes. After that, the

analyst can make some changes, but NDT controls

that these changes are agree with requirements.

 Use Cases and Classes Analysis

In activities four and five, Métrica poses to analyse

the use cases and to build the class diagram. This

step in NDT is automatic from the requirements.

NDT offers a systematic way, based on MDE, to

extract the requirements information and get the

class diagram. If NDT-Tool is used, this step is

completely automatic. This class diagram is the

basic class diagram. After generating it, the

development team can follow NDT heuristics to get

the final model.

 Data Model and Process Model Generation

Activities six and seven are to generate the data

model and the process model. These activities only

must be executed in the structured paradigm. Our

approach only works in the object oriented

paradigm, thus we are not going to deal with these

activities.

 User Interface Generation

In the eighth activity, Métrica proposes to get the

user interface. NDT offers a new orientation for this

activity. NDT enriches Métrica and proposes to get

two different models in this activity. (1) The

navigational model, using a class diagram to

represent the navigation possibilities of the system.

(2) The prototype model, using html to model the

future interface of the system without design detail.

Both models can be generated from requirements in

NDT using metamodels and MDE.

 Consistency Analysis

When the analysis is developed and before

generating the analysis document, Métrica proposes

to study the consistence between requirements and

analysis models. If our approach is used, this activity

is not necessary. If patterns to describe requirements

are used and MDE is applied following the NDT

rules, requirements and analysis models are

consistent. Relations define between NDT

metamodels assure that changes are controlled and

they do not provoke inconsistencies in requirements

and analysis.

 Test Planning Specification and Analysis

Approbation

Finally, in activities ten and eleven, Métrica

proposes to define the test planning and to validate

and approve the analysis results. In this sense, NDT

assume the Métrica guides and techniques and it did

not add any change.

WEBIST 2008 - International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies

226

5 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE

WORKS

This paper presented a successful fusion between

two software approaches: Métrica and NDT. The

first one is a general methodological environment to

develop software systems in public administration in

Spain and, the second one is a MDWE approach to

deal with the requirements and the analysis phase.

As it was introduced, Métrica is a very used

technique to develop software systems in Spain.

Public organization and private companies use it as a

reference to develop their system. Everyday, the

object oriented version of Métrica is more used and,

nowadays, most projects are developed using the

OO paradigm in Métrica. However, as we said,

Métrica is sometime ambiguous.

With our fusion, Métrica is enriched with:

 The requirements treatment of Métrica is

enriched with requirements elicitation

techniques, with requirements definition

techniques and with requirements validation

techniques.

 Model-driven engineering NDT techniques are

included in the ASI phase. They allow generating

model systematically from the requirements.

Even this derivation can be automatic if NDT-

Tool is used. This generation reduces the

development time.

 The requirements catalogue and the analysis

document can be developed automatically with

NDT-Tool.

 ASI phase can be affronted using NDT-Tool.

The tool guarantees the consistency between

requirements and model and reduces the

development time, because it produces results

automatically.

For these advantages, our fusion was accepted by

several companies in Andalusia. The Consejería de

Cultura and the Servicio Andaluz de Salud, assumed

the fusion of Métrica and NDT presented to

developed their projects. Two companies, Telvent

and everis, also accepted the approach for their

development. Besides, NDT is a technique applied

in several real projects. In (Escalona et al., 2006), a

general view of these applications can be found.

If we try to analyse why this fusion was possible,

the answer is on metamodels. NDT is completely

metamodelled as an extension of UML 2.0. The OO

version of Métrica proposes to use UML 2.0 as

modeller language. Obviously, metamodels of

Métrica and metamodels of UML are the same.

Thus, basically, our approach is the extension of

Métrica metamodels using the extension of NDT.

The facility of fusion based on the fusion of

metamodels is an important fact. Model-driven

engineering proposes to focus the approach on the

definition of metamodels and relations between

them, and also derivation rules to generate one

model from another. Thus, our practical approach

proves this idea and concludes with very good

results.

Results in real projects are so good, that we are

working in different areas to advance in this kind of

approach. First, we are working in the tool, NDT-

Tool. It is being revised in order to improve its

usability and navigability. Another important actual

and future work is to review the next phases of

Métrica. For this work, we are focusing in the fusion

of metamodels and, after that, we presented a new

definition of DSI like the one presented for ASI in

section 4.

Obviously, we want to continue working with

real projects because it is a very interesting feedback

for our works.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research has been supported by the project

QSimTest (TIN2007-67843-C06_03) and by the

RePRIS project of the Ministerio de Educación y

Ciencia (TIN2007-30391-E), Spain.

REFERENCES

Escalona, M.J. Modelos y técnicas para la especificación y

el análisis de la Navegación en sistemas software. Ph.

European Thesis. Department of Computer Languages

and Systems. University of Seville. Spain. 2004.

Escalona, M.J., Gutierrez, J.J., Villadiego, D., León, A.,

Torres, A.H. Practical Experience in Web Engineering.

Proceedings of the ISD 2006. Check Republic. 2006.

Escalona, M.J., Torres, J., Mejías, M., Gutierrez, J.J. and

Villadiego, D. The Treatment of Navigation in Web

Engineering. Advances in Engineering Software. Vol.

38 (4), 267-282, 2007.

Escalona, M.J. and Koch, N. Metamodeling Requirements

of Web Systems. Web Information Systems and

Technologies. Int. Conf. WebIST 2005 and WebIST

2006, Revised selected papers. Springer Verlag. Vol.

1, 267-280, 2007.

Insfrán, E., Pastor, O., Wieringa, R. Requirements

Engineering-Based Conceptual Modelling.

Requirements Engineering Journal, Vol 7 (1). 2002.

Olsina, L., Rossi, G. Measuring Web Application Quality

with WebQEM. IEEE Multimedia. pp. 20-45. 2002.

The Unified Modeling Language V.2.0. Object

Management Group. OMG. 2003.

Vilain, P., Schwabe, D., Sieckenius, C. A diagrammatic

Tool for Representing User Interaction in UML.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science. UML’2002.

England 2002.

NDT & METRICA V3 - An Approach for Public Organizations based on Model Driven Engineering

227