TY - JOUR

T1 - Model-driven engineering practices in industry

T2 - social, organizational and managerial factors that lead to success or failure

AU - Hutchinson, John

AU - Whittle, Jon

AU - Rouncefield, Mark

PY - 2014/9/1

Y1 - 2014/9/1

N2 - In this article, we attempt to address the relative absence of empirical studies of model driven engineering (MDE) in two different but complementary ways. First, we present an analysis of a large online survey of MDE deployment and experience that provides some rough quantitative measures of MDE practices in industry. Second, we supplement these figures with qualitative data obtained from some semi-structured, in-depth interviews with MDE practitioners, and, in particular, through describing the practices of four commercial organizations as they adopted a model driven engineering approach to their software development practices. Using in-depth semi-structured interviewing, we invited practitioners to reflect on their experiences and selected four to use as exemplars or case studies. In documenting some details of their attempts to deploy model driven practices, we identify a number of factors, in particular the importance of complex organizational, managerial and social factors–as opposed to simple technical factors–that appear to influence the relative success, or failure, of the endeavor. Three of the case study companies describe genuine success in their use of model driven development, but explain that as examples of organizational change management, the successful deployment of model driven engineering appears to require: a progressive and iterative approach; transparent organizational commitment and motivation; integration with existing organizational processes and a clear business focus

AB - In this article, we attempt to address the relative absence of empirical studies of model driven engineering (MDE) in two different but complementary ways. First, we present an analysis of a large online survey of MDE deployment and experience that provides some rough quantitative measures of MDE practices in industry. Second, we supplement these figures with qualitative data obtained from some semi-structured, in-depth interviews with MDE practitioners, and, in particular, through describing the practices of four commercial organizations as they adopted a model driven engineering approach to their software development practices. Using in-depth semi-structured interviewing, we invited practitioners to reflect on their experiences and selected four to use as exemplars or case studies. In documenting some details of their attempts to deploy model driven practices, we identify a number of factors, in particular the importance of complex organizational, managerial and social factors–as opposed to simple technical factors–that appear to influence the relative success, or failure, of the endeavor. Three of the case study companies describe genuine success in their use of model driven development, but explain that as examples of organizational change management, the successful deployment of model driven engineering appears to require: a progressive and iterative approach; transparent organizational commitment and motivation; integration with existing organizational processes and a clear business focus

KW - Model driven engineering

KW - Empirical software engineering

KW - Industry practice

U2 - 10.1016/j.scico.2013.03.017

DO - 10.1016/j.scico.2013.03.017

M3 - Journal article

VL - 89

SP - 144

EP - 161

JO - Science of Computer Programming

JF - Science of Computer Programming

SN - 0167-6423

IS - Part B

ER -