This book focuses on metamodelling as a discipline, exploring its foundations, techniques and results. It presents a comprehensive metamodel that covers process, product and quality issues under a common framework. This book covers issues including: an explanation of what metamodelling is and why it is necessary in the context of software engineering; basic concepts and principles of traditional metamodelling, and some existing results of this approach; problems associated with traditional approaches to Metamodelling are discussed, alongside an exploration of possible solutions and alternative approaches; and, advanced topics such as the extension of the object-oriented paradigm for metamodelling purposes or the foundations of powertype-based tool development will be studied. Finally, a comprehensive case study is introduced and developed, showing how to use many of the concepts explained in the previous chapters. This book provides a comprehensive conceptual framework for metamodelling and includes case studies and exercises which will demonstrate practical uses of metamodelling. For lecturers and educators, this book provides a layered repository of contents, starting from the basics of metamodelling in the first chapters, through specific issues such as trans-layer control or non-strict approaches, up to advanced topics such as universal powertyping or extensions to the object-oriented paradigm. This book also serves as an in-depth reference guide to features and technologies to consider when developing in-house software development methods or customising and adopting off-the-shelf ones. Software tool developers and vendors can benefit from the book by finding in it a comprehensive guide to the implementation of frameworks and toolsets for computer-aided software modelling and development.
