Frequently software testing tends to be neglected at the beginning of the projects, only performed on the late stage. However, it is possible to benefit from combining requirement with testing specification activities. On one hand, acceptance tests specification will require less manual effort since they are defined or generated automatically from the requirements specification. On the other hand, the requirements specification itself will end up having higher quality due to the use of a more structured language, reducing typical problems such as ambiguity, inconsistency and incorrectness. This research proposes an approach that promotes the practice of tests specification since the very beginning of projects, and its integration with the requirements specification itself. It is a model-driven approach that contributes to maintain the requirements and tests alignment, namely between requirements, test cases, and low-level automated test scripts. To show the applicability of the approach, two complementary languages are adopted: the ITLingo RSL that is particularly designed to support both requirements and tests specification; and the Robot language, which is a low-level keyword-based language for the specification of test scripts. The approach includes model-to-model transformation techniques, such as test cases into test scripts transformations. In addition, these test scripts are executed by the Robot test automation framework.

Nowadays users have multiple devices to access a myriad of web and mobile applications. This has increased the importance of developing such applications in a responsive way, i.e. with the ability to seamlessly display their contents on multiple devices. This paper proposes the XIS-Web technology as a model-driven approach focused in the development of responsive web applications. XIS-Web technology includes two main parts: the XIS-Web modeling language, implemented as a UML profile; and the XIS-Web framework, which is a set of integrated software tools. XIS-Web stands out in four key aspects: supports the modeling of web applications around six viewpoints, which ultimately promotes the separation of concerns that is key to managing complexity; generates user-interface models from extended use-case models, relieving this cumbersome and time consuming task from the user; employs latest generation web technologies (such as HTML5, JavaScript, CSS) that allow the required flexibility of developing responsive web applications; and allows the creation of platform-independent models without requiring a significant learning curve. This paper also presents an evaluation conducted in a controlled environment with a group of independent users, and briefly introduces simple case studies.

Content Management Systems (CMS) are popular web application platforms used in multiple domains. CMS allow non-technical users to manage the content and features of websites with web modules that abstract functionality without requiring particular software programming background. However, without the development of specific web modules, a CMS usually cannot support complex scenarios or specific business needs. In those situations, developers have to build custom modules using the CMS-specific language, which implies that they must master the corresponding programming and other technical skills. This paper proposes a model-driven approach, named XIS-CMS, which aims to increase the productivity and portability of developing these modules in a more abstract and platform-independent way. XIS-CMS approach includes a domain-specific modeling language, defined as a UML profile, and a companion framework defined on top of Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect and Eclipse Modeling Framework technologies. This paper introduces the XIS-CMS approach, its corresponding language and framework, and compares it with related work.

The development and use of Domain Specific Languages emerged as a way to cope with complex problems using concepts closer to the problem domain. By leveraging the principles proposed by Model-Driven Development (MDD), like the separation of concerns and the use of model transformations, this approach became popular and caused the emergence of a variety of languages, known as Domain Specific Modeling Languages (DSMLs). Moreover, the use of DSMLs with graphical notations abstracts even more the problem domain, either by using extensions of UML or directly using metamodeling languages. The definition and use of DSMLs is only possible through specific tools, known as languages workbenches. This paper discusses the analysis and comparison of three of these tools (namely Papyrus, Enterprise Architect and Sirius) that were used to create the XIS-Mobile language, a non-trivial DSML defined as a UML profile for modeling mobile applications in a platform-independent way. These tools were evaluated considering a set of key criteria (namely learnability, usability, graphical completeness, validation support, transformation support, evolvability and interoperability) which show their suitability to develop non-trivial languages.

During the last decade a new trend of approaches has emerged, which considers models not just documentation artefacts, but also central artefacts in the software engineering field, allowing the creation or automatic execution of software systems starting from those models. These proposals have been classified generically as Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) and share common concepts and terms that need to be abstracted, discussed and understood. This paper presents a survey on MDE based on a unified conceptual model that clearly identifies and relates these essential concepts, namely the concepts of system, model, metamodel, modeling language, transformations, software platform, and software product. In addition, this paper discusses the terminologies relating MDE, MDD, MDA and others. This survey is based on earlier work, however, contrary to those, it intends to give a simple, broader and integrated view of the essential concepts and respective terminology commonly involved in the MDE, answering to key questions such as: What is a model? What is the relation between a model and a metamodel? What are the key facets of a modeling language? How can I use models in the context of a software development process? What are the relations between models and source code artefacts and software platforms? and What are the relations between MDE, MDD, MDA and other MD approaches?

This paper discusses the results of applied research on the eco-driving domain based on a huge data set produced from a fleet of Lisbon's public transportation buses for a three-year period. This data set is based on events automatically extracted from the control area network bus and enriched with GPS coordinates, weather conditions, and road information. We apply online analytical processing (OLAP) and knowledge discovery (KD) techniques to deal with the high volume of this data set and to determine the major factors that influence the average fuel consumption, and then classify the drivers involved according to their driving efficiency. Consequently, we identify the most appropriate driving practices and styles. Our findings show that introducing simple practices, such as optimal clutch, engine rotation, and engine running in idle, can reduce fuel consumption on average from 3 to 5l/100 km, meaning a saving of 30 l per bus on one day. These findings have been strongly considered in the drivers' training sessions.

In this work is proposed the design of a system to create and handle Electric Vehicles (EV) charging procedures, based on intelligent process. Due to the electrical power distribution network limitation and absence of smart meter devices, Electric Vehicles charging should be performed in a balanced way, taking into account past experience, weather information based on data mining, and simulation approaches. In order to allow information exchange and to help user mobility, it was also created a mobile application to assist the EV driver on these processes. This proposed Smart Electric Vehicle Charging System uses Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology, in order to connect Electric Vehicles and also renewable energy sources to Smart Grids (SG). This system also explores the new paradigm of Electrical Markets (EM), with deregulation of electricity production and use, in order to obtain the best conditions for commercializing electrical energy.

The software development process still presents serious flaws, which result in a large number of failed, or even abandoned projects. Studies on software quality emphasize that many of these issues could be eliminated, or at least mitigated, if more attention was given to the early stages of this process, such as those covered by requirements engineering. The increasing size and complexity of modern information systems require new socio-technical approaches to prevent errors in the upstream phases of the software's life cycle to minimize rework afterwards. In this paper we describe the tool support for the ProjectIT approach, which seeks to address these problems. The proposed Wiki-based tool follows the current trend of moving applications to the Web to address some of the limitations of the current desktop-based CASE tools of the ProjectIT initiative, namely to facilitate communication, cooperation, and negotiation between stakeholders during the requirements development workflow.

Despite the efforts made during the last decades, Software Engineering still presents several issues concerning software products' quality. Requirements Engineering plays a important role regarding software quality, since it deals with the clear definition of the target system's scope. Moreover, Requirements Engineering is crucial to deal with change management, which is required to ensure that the final product reflects the stakeholders' expectations, namely the client and end-users business-related needs. We advocate the need to address the open issues regarding the requirements development process, namely to mitigate the drawbacks of using informal natural language, such as ambiguity and inconsistency. Moreover, we recognize the importance of automation to enhance productivity by avoiding repetitive and error-prone activities. In this paper, we propose a new socio-technical approach to overcome these software quality problems, consisting on the deep integration of Requirements Engineering with Model-Driven Engineering processes. This approach is based upon a controlled natural language for requirements specification, supporting the automatic extraction and verification of requirements models with Natural Language Processing techniques. The current results consist on the development of a Wiki-based tool prototype to validate our research ideas.

Content management systems (CMS) are typically regarded as critical software platforms for the success of organizational web sites and intranets. Although most current CMS systems allow their extension through the addition of modules/components, these are usually built using the typical source-code-oriented software development process, which is slow and error-prone. On the other hand, a MDE-oriented development process is centered on models, which represent the system and are used to automatically generate all corresponding artifacts, such as source-code and documentation. This paper describes our proposal for a MDE approach to address the development of web-applications based on CMS systems. This approach is based on the creation of two CMS-oriented languages (situated at different levels of abstraction, and are used to both quickly model a web-application and provide a common ground for the creation of additional CMS-oriented languages), and a mechanism for the processing of models specified using those languages. Those models are then to be deployed to a target CMS platform by means of code generation or model interpretation/execution mechanisms.

The emerging Model-Driven Engineering paradigm advocates the use of models as first-class citizens in the software development process, while artifacts such as documentation and source-code can be quickly produced from those models by using automated transformations. One of the many types of deployment platforms that can potentially benefit from such model-driven approaches are Content Management Systems, as these approaches can significantly accelerate the development of new web-applications and features, as well as simplify their maintenance. This work proposes the creation of a model-driven approach for the development of web-applications based on Content Management Systems. This approach is based on the creation of two modeling languages (which are situated at different levels of abstraction, and are used to both quickly model a web-application and provide a common ground for the creation of additional languages), and a mechanism for the processing of models specified using those languages. The current results of this work so far are the development of a Content Management System that effectively supports web-applications of medium complexity, and the creation of a reference case study that will be used to validate this work.

Ever since the introduction of computers into society, researchers have been trying to raise the abstraction level at which we build software programs. We are currently adopting an abstraction level based on graphical models instead of source code: MDE. MDE is the driving force for some recent modeling languages and approaches, such as OMG’s UML or Domain-Specific Modeling. All these approaches are founded on metamodeling: defining languages that represent a problem-domain. A key factor for the success of any approach is appropriate tool support. However, only recently have tool creators started considering metamodeling as an important issue in their list of concerns. In this paper, we evaluate a small set of MDE tools from the perspective of the metamodeling activity, focusing on both architectural and practical aspects. Then, using the results of this evaluation, we discuss open research issues for MDE-based software development tools.

MDIRS is methodology to define the actors and the steps to build efficiently information retrieval (IR) System. MDRIS main mission is to analyze, develop and evaluate mechanisms and tools to produce IR systems from a more abstract, high level, efficient and productive way than it is done currently. MDIRS project is influenced by MDA reference model, and is mainly based on three principles: namely, high-level models specification; generative programming techniques; and it is component-based architecture-centric. In this paper we detail the methodology generative programming techniques used to produce IR Systems and the work that will be handled in the near future.

XIS is a R&D project which main mission is to analyze, develop and evaluate mechanisms and tools to produce information systems from a more abstract, high-level, efficient and productive way than it is done currently. XIS project is influenced by MDA reference model, and is mainly based on three principles: namely high-level models specification; generative programming techniques; and it is component-based architecture-centric. XIS is not a conceptual research plan, it is a working on project with concrete results and produced systems. In this paper we detail the generative programming techniques used in the XIS project as well as the discussions and main decisions tackled on. Finally, we present the main conclusions, the relationship between XIS and MDA, and the work that will be handled in the near future.