Towards a precise definition of the OMG/MDA framework

Abstract

We are currently witnessing an important paradigm shift in information system construction, namely the move from object and component technology to model technology. The object technology revolution has allowed the replacement of the over twenty-year-old step-wise procedural decomposition paradigm with the more fashionable object composition paradigm. Surprisingly, this evolution seems to have triggered another even more radical change, the current trend toward model transformation. A concrete example is the Object Management Group's rapid move from its previous Object Management Architecture vision to the latest Model-Driven Architecture. This paper proposes an interpretation of this evolution through abstract investigation. In order to stay as language-independent as possible, we have employed the neutral formalism of Sowa's conceptual graphs to describe the various situations characterizing this organization. This will allow us to identify potential problems in the proposed modeling framework and suggest some possible solutions.