A Metamodel and Supporting Process and Tool for Specifying Quality Models in Model-Based Software Development.

Modelling is applied increasingly more in software development; from developing sketches to blueprints of design and approaches that use models in all phases of software development such as the model-driven engineering approach. Consequently, developers need tools and techniques that allow them to reflect upon the quality of the models, as well as the environment used for developing these models such as modelling languages, modelling processes and tools. This article describes work on developing quality models in model-based software development by identifying stakeholders and their purposes of modelling, specifying quality goals based on these purposes, identifying means or practices required to achieve quality goals and selecting proper evaluation methods. These are steps in developing quality models that include rationale for selecting quality goals and is supported by a process, a metamodel and a tool developed in Eclipse. The contributions of the approach are firstly providing a framework for developing quality models that is tailored to model-based software development and secondly providing example quality models that may be reused by different projects, thus facilitating work on quality issues in software development.