Formal executable semantics for conformance in the MDE framework

Abstract

In the MDE framework, a metamodel is a language referring to some kind of metadata whose elements formalize concepts and relations providing a modeling language. An instance of this modeling language which adheres to its concepts and relations is called a valid model, i.e., a model satisfying structural conformance to its metamodel. However, a metamodel frequently imposes additional constraints to its valid instances. These conditions are usually written in OCL and are called well-formedness rules. In presence of these constraints, a valid model must adhere to the concepts and relations of its metamodel and fullfill its constraints, i.e., a valid model is a model satisfying semantical conformance to its metamodel. In this work, we provide a formal semantics to the notions of structural and semantical conformance between models and metamodels building on our previous work. Our definitions can be automatically checked using the ITP/OCL tool.