Towards Methods for Model-Based Software Development

TL;DR

This paper discusses the need for systematic methods in emerging areas of software engineering, focusing on preliminary insights into developing methods for Model-Based Software Development (MBSE).

Contribution

It introduces initial ideas and a speculative approach towards establishing methods for MBSE, an area lacking systematic guidance.

Findings

Insights on the conception of methods for MBSE

Preliminary ideas for systematic development of MBSE methods

Highlighting the gap in existing software engineering methods

Abstract

Software engineering is a young discipline. Despite efforts in recent years, some elements still require further development, research, and systematization. One of these elements are methods. They consist of a set of well-defined activities used in a software development to guide how the work should be performed to achieve the expected results. However, there is a lack of systematic knowledge that effectively guide how work should be done in a variety of areas. Despite the knowledge available in Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK), only the classical methods are comprised there, while emerging topics such as Agent-Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE), Aspect-Oriented Software Development (AOSD), and Model-Based Software Development (MBSE) are only briefly mentioned. We claim that it is also necessary to investigate methods for those emerging software engineering subtracks. In this direction, this paper presents a a speculative and preliminary emerging results on the establishment of methods for MBSE. We report some insights on the conception of methods for MBSE.