A domain-specific language for modeling method definition: From requirements to grammar

The core process a modeling method engineer needs to accomplish starts with the acquisition of domain knowledge and requirements, and ends with the deployment of a usable modeling tool. In between, a key intermediate deliverable of this process is the modeling method specification which, ideally, should be platform independent. On one hand, it takes input from a structured understanding of the application domain and scenarios; on the other hand, it provides sufficiently structured input to support the implementation of tool support for modeling activities. It is quite common that such modeling methods are domain-specific, in the sense that they provide concepts from the domain as “first-class modeling citizens”. However, for the purposes of this paper, we raise the level of abstraction for “domain specificity” and consider “modeling method engineering” as the application domain. Consequently, we raise several research questions - whether a domain-specific language can support this domain, and what would be its requirements, properties, constructs and grammar. We propose an initial draft of such a language - one that abstracts away from meta-modeling platforms by establishing a meta² layer of abstraction where a modeling method can be defined in a declarative manner, then the final modeling tool is generated by automated compilation of the method definition for the meta-modeling environment of choice.