Incorporating usability requirements into model transformation technologies

Model transformation plays a key role in the model-driven engineering (MDE) approach. In fact, it describes the process of converting one model into another of the same system. Considering a source model, there may be several ways to transform it into target models. Although alternative target models may be equivalent from the functional viewpoint, they may differ in their usability attributes. One of the key challenges for an automated transformation process is to identify which model transformations will produce a target model with the desired usability attributes. The present paper addresses this issue and provides a parameterized transformation to deal with usability driven in an MDE approach. Specifically, it focuses on how to associate usability attributes with the different alternative transformations and how this can be taken into account in an automated transformation process to obtain user interface model with the desired usability attributes.