Model-driven engineering and development processes are used to reach similar targets, such as increasing the quality of software or the efficiency of software development. Although, these goals are approached differently, MDE and development processes are not totally independent.
In contrary, in literature a multitude of proposals for MDE specific development processes can be found. Proposals for the use of MDE in context of standard development processes, such as the V-Modell XT or SCRUM, however, partly include strong adaptations of the development process. Stakeholders' duties might be as affected as quality assurance activities, which need to respect the structure of used artifacts. Partly, even process phases and sprints are adapted to enable a combination with MDE. Most adaptations have pragmatic reasons, and aim at enabling a combination.
However, it is also possible that an MDE approach and a development process barely fit together. For example, the benefit of an agile approach might be reduced, if long transformation chains enforce long running sprints.
Thus, companies that aim at adopting MDE also have to face the questions, how appropriate development processes have to look like, whether and how existing development processes can be adapted. It is important to consider that development process adaptation can be cost intensive (e.g. due to required training of developers). However, this is an additional cost factor when the use of MDE technologies requires extensive changes in a development process.
Subsuming, the questions whether and how an established development process needs to be adapted when MDE is introduced are crucial, since they can impact the efficiency of the development processes as well as the costs of MDE introduction. In face of the growing number of MDE techniques and the individuality of MDE approaches applied in practice, there is a need for systematic guidelines or best practices that ease the decisions about adjustment of development processes, when MDE is introduced.
Due to the high effort associated to collecting data on this topic, it is for researchers barely possible to approach the associated questions single-handedly.
The MD²P² workshop could last year already contribute here, by successfully providing a platform for publications of case study based investigations of model-driven processes and practices [2].We hope that this year’s workshop will again lead to further insightful studies on the use of MDE and processes in industry. Further, we are convinced that the second edition of the workshop can help researchers and practitioners to stabilize a community that shares data and experience. The focused and cooperative investigation of this topic can lead to guidelines and best practices, that support companies in introducing MDE.
