A Bottom-Up Quality Model for QVTo

Abstract

We investigate the notion of quality in QVT Operational Mappings (QVTo), one of the languages defined in the OMG standard on model-to-model transformations. We utilize a bottom-up approach, starting with a broad exploratory study including QVTo expert interviews, a review of existing material, and introspection. We then formalize QVTo transformation quality into a QVTo quality model, consisting of high-level quality goals, quality properties, and evaluation procedures. We validate the quality model by conducting a survey in which a broader group of QVTo developers rate each property on its importance to QVTo code quality. We find that although many quality properties recognized as important for QVTo do have counterparts in traditional languages, a number are specific to QVTo or model transformation languages. Additionally, a selection of QVTo best practices discovered are presented. The primary contribution of this paper is a QVTo quality model relevant to QVTo practitioners, while secondary contributions are a bottom-up approach to building a quality model and a validation approach leveraging developer perceptions to evaluate individual quality properties.