Developing Reliable yet Flexible Software through If-Then Model Transformation Rules

Developing reliable yet flexible software is a hard problem. Although modeling methods enjoy a lot of advantages, the exclusive use of just one of them, in many cases, may not guarantee the development of reliable and flexible software. Formal modeling methods ensure reliability because they use a rigorous approach to software development. However, lack of knowledge and high cost practically force developers to use semi-formal methods instead. Semi-formal (visual) modeling methods, which are widely used in practical large-scale software development, are not good enough for reliable software development. This paper proposes a new approach to the development of reliable yet flexible software by transforming formal and semi-formal models into each other. In this way, the advantages of both methods are incorporated in to the software development process. The structured rules, proposed in this paper, transform formal and visual models into each other through the iterative and evolutionary process. The feasibility as well as the effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated using the multi-lift system as a test case.