Authors:
Matthew Stephan
and
James R. Cordy
Affiliation:
Queen's University, Canada
Keyword(s):
Model Comparison, Model-Driven Engineering, Model Versioning, Model Clone Detection.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Applications and Software Development
;
Languages, Tools and Architectures
;
Model Quality Assurance Techniques
;
Model-Driven Project Management
;
Model-Driven Software Development
;
Reasoning about Models
;
Software Engineering
Abstract:
This survey paper presents the current state of model comparison as it applies to Model-Driven Engineering. We look specifically at how model matching is accomplished, the application of the approaches, and the types of models that approaches are intended to work with. Our paper also indicates future trends and directions. We find that many of the latest model comparison techniques are geared towards facilitating arbitrary meta models and use similarity-based matching. Thus far, model versioning is the most prevalent application of model comparison. Recently, however, work on comparison for versioning has begun to stagnate, giving way to other applications. Lastly, there is wide variance among the tools in the amount of user effort required to perform model comparison, as some require more effort to facilitate more generality and expressive power.