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In model-driven engineering developers work mainly or only with models, which exist in many versions. This paper presents an approach to trace single model elements or groups of elements within a version history of a model. It also offers analysis capabilities such as detection of logical coupling between model elements. The approach uses a differencing algorithm known as SiDiff to identify similar elements in different versions of a model. SiDiff is highly configurable and thus our tracing approach can be adapted to all diagram types of the UML and to a large set of domain specific languages. The approach has been implemented as an Eclipse plug-in that visualizes all relevant information about the traces and it allows developers to interactively explore details. It has been evaluated by several groups of test persons; they considered most of the functions of the tool to be very useful.

If large models are compared their difference can contain a huge number of local changes. Conventional methods for displaying differences cannot reasonably handle such large differences. This paper proposes a solution to this problem. Our approach is based on the concept of polymetric views and extends it in two ways: firstly, we propose metrics for differences which quantify properties of differences and distinguish relevant from irrelevant changes. Moreover, we propose new graphical features of polymetric views. This combination provides a scalable presentation of differences which makes the changes of large models comprehensible.

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