Best Practices for Model-Driven Software Development

Model-driven software development no longer belongs to the fringes of the industry but is being applied in more and more software projects with great success. In this article, Sven Efftinge, Peter Friese, and Jan Köhnlein pass on, based on the experiences gathered in the past few years, their own contribution to its MDD's best practices.


Best practices covered include:

• Separate the generated and manual code from each other
• Don't check-in generated code
• Integrate the generator into the build process
• Use the resources of the target platform
• Generate clean code
• Use the complier
• Talk in Metamodelese
• Develop DSLs iteratively
• Develop model-validation iteratively
• Test the generator using a reference model
• Select suitable technology
• Use textual syntax correctly
• Use Configuration By Exception
• Teamwork loves textual DSLs
• Use model-transformation to reduce complexity
• Generate towards a comprehensive platform

The authors conclude the article recommending that despite these practices, the most important lesson is to be pragmatic:

DSLs and code generators can, when used appropriately, be an immensely useful tool. But the focus should always be the problem to be solved. In many cases, it makes sense to describe certain, but not all, aspects using DSLs. Projects which decide from the get-go to follow a model-driven approach are ignoring this last piece of advice. Are you doing MDD? What have been your experiences?

For more information: Best Practices for Model-Driven Software Development