Mismatches between industry practice and teaching of model-driven software development

Jon Whittle and John Hutchinson.

Abstract

EAMDE was a 12 month research project, investigating how industry uses model-driven software development (MDSD). Using quantitative and qualitative research techniques, experiences were collected on the adoption and application of MDSD in 17 companies. The study highlighted examples of good and bad practice that lead to success or failure with MDSD. Some of these practices appear to have ramifications on the way that MDSD, and software modeling more generally, is taught within universities. This paper presents three of the key findings relevant to education: (1) A significant number of successful MDSD companies build their own modeling languages and generators, suggesting a re-orientation of education away from UML notation to fundamental modeling principles; (2) MDSD is generally taught top-down, whereas industry success is more likely when MDSD is applied bottom-up; (3) successful application of MDSD requires skills both in abstract modeling and compilers/optimization; however, these skills tend to be separated in standard CS curricula.