This book discusses how model-based approaches can improve the daily practice of software professionals. This is known as Model-Driven Software Engineering (MDSE) or, simply, Model-Driven Engineering (MDE). MDSE practices have proved to increase efficiency and effectiveness in software development, as demonstrated by various quantitative and qualitative studies. MDSE adoption in the software industry is foreseen to grow exponentially in the near future, e.g., due to the convergence of software development and business analysis. The aim of this book is to provide you with an agile and flexible tool to introduce you to the MDSE world, thus allowing you to quickly understand its basic principles and techniques and to choose the right set of MDSE instruments for your needs so that you can start to benefit from MDSE right away. The book is organized into two main parts. The first part discusses the foundations of MDSE in terms of basic concepts (i.e., models and transformations), driving principles, application scenarios, and current standards, like the well-known MDA initiative proposed by OMG (Object Management Group) as well as the practices on how to integrate MDSE in existing development processes.

Systems and enterprises (often referred to as systems-of-systems) that employ multiple advanced technologies and achieve ever-higher levels of complexity have become mainstays of the modern world. Managing the complexity of these systems, especially to create solutions to the needs of system users and other stakeholders within acceptable cost and schedule, is a recurring challenge to the Systems Engineering (SE) community. Spectacular progress in mechanical and electronic devices, materials, sensors, energy generation and control, vehicles and propulsion, communications and networking, computing and software, and many other fields creates both new capabilities and new demands for tools and methods to effectively exploit them. Communities as diverse as the sciences, commercial enterprises, education, government, academia, and the military frequently report that programs aimed at delivering new capabilities based on advanced technology have overrun their budgets and schedules, failed to meet their objectives, or simply overwhelmed the capabilities of system developers and users.