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The development and maintenance of UML models is an inherently distributed activity, where distribution may be geographical, temporal or both. It is therefore increasingly important to be able to interchange model information between tools -whether in a tool chain, for legacy reasons or because of the natural heterogeneity resulting from distributed development contexts. In this study we consider the current utility of XMI interchange for supporting OSS tool adoption to complement other tools in an embedded systems development context. We find that the current state of play is disappointing, and speculate that the problem lies both with the open standards and the way in which they are being supported and interpreted. There is a challenge here for the OSS community to take a lead as tool vendors gear up for XMI 2.0.

Many companies are using model-based techniques to offer a competitive advantage in an increasingly globalised systems development industry. Central to model-based development is the concept of models as the basis from which systems are generated, tested, and maintained. The availability of high-quality tools and the ability to adopt and adapt them to the company practice are important qualities. Model interchange between tools becomes a major issue. Without it, there is significantly reduced flexibility and a danger of tool lock-in. We explore the use of a standardised interchange format (XMI) for increasing flexibility in a company environment. We report on a case study in which a systems development company has explored the possibility of complementing its current proprietary tools with open-source products for supporting its model-based development activities. We found that problems still exist with interchange and that the technology needs to mature before industrial-strength model interchange becomes a reality.

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Model driven development has several advantages over traditional development, including simplified maintenance. We demonstrate an architecture which, through model driven engineering, allows heterogeneous distributed development of components in a mechatronics application. Key to the approach is an architecture which allows automated and dynamic component integration, together with model sharing through the transformation of XMI files.