Query-Based Impact Analysis of Metamodel Evolutions

Abstract

Metamodels are at the core of any modeling ecosystem. As their evolution is inevitable, the management of artifacts which depend on these metamodels is a complicated task. Restoring the validity of the corrupted artifacts after a metamodel evolution in a (semi-)automated manner is intrinsically difficult especially when considering the exact impact of the evolution on the restoring process. In this paper, we propose a generic approach to automatically quantify and identify the impact of metamodel evolution on two related artifacts: models and transformations. The approach starts from the evolution definition and generates OCL queries that can be executed on these artifacts to obtain the impacted elements. The knowledge gained from the impact analysis may then guide the user in the decision on whether to proceed with the evolution or to revert it.