A MDE Generative Approach for Mobile Business Apps

Context: There is an increasing demand for mobile BIS apps and shorter time-to-market requirements. However, developing those apps faces several problems, such as being able to guarantee business rules fulfilment, support multiple platforms, handle localization and facilitate apps evolution. Objective: Propose a generative approach for mobile BIS apps that will mitigate the identified problems. Its input is a platform independent model (PIM), with business rules specified in OCL. Method: We adopted the Design Science Research methodology, that helps gaining problem understanding, identifying systemically appropriate solutions, and in effectively evaluating new and innovative solutions. Results: We have already identified the problem and its motivation, defined the objectives for a solution, designed and developed a prototype generative tool for BIS apps, demonstrated its usage and evaluated how well it mitigates a subset of the identified problems in an observational study and started to communicate its effectiveness to researchers and practitioners. Limitations: Several issues have not been addressed yet, such as the problem of distributed business rules enforcement and the formalization of the required transformations from the PIM to several platform-specific models (PSMs). Conclusion: We intend to contribute for reducing BIS apps time-to-market, while improving the maintainability of those apps.