Service–Oriented Architecture Modeling: Bridging the Gap between Structure and Behavior

Model–driven development of large-scale software systems is highly likely to produce models that describe the systems from many diverse perspectives using a variety of modeling languages. Checking and maintaining consistency of information captured in such multi-modeling environments is known to be challenging. In this paper we describe an approach to systematically synchronize multi–models. The approach specifically addresses the problem of synchronizing business processes and domain models in a Service-oriented Architecture development environment. In the approach, the human effort required to synchronize independently developed models is supplemented with significant automated support. This process is used to identify concept divergences, that is, a concept in one model which cannot be matched with concepts in the other model. We automate the propagation of divergence resolution decisions across the conflicting models. We illustrate the approach using models developed for a Car Crash Crisis Management System (CCCMS), a case study problem used to assess Aspect–oriented Modeling approaches.