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EuroSymposium on Systems Analysis and Design

SIGSAND/PLAIS 2015: Information Systems: Development, Applications, Education pp 15–31Cite as

Reengineering an Approach to Model-Driven Development of Business Apps

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 232))

Abstract

Despite a perceived convergence in mobile application development, platforms such as Android and iOS remain largely incompatible. Supporting multiple platforms currently requires either separate native development (for each system) or utilization of a cross-platform development framework. While many such frameworks have been developed, only few are mature and even less are used widely, let alone commercially. Moreover, they typically are limited with regard to performance and to preserving a native look & feel. Worst of all, their usefulness for business apps is limited due to their low level of abstraction. In this paper, we take a closer look at an academic prototype that employs model-driven software development (MDSD) for a cross-platform framework that facilitates business app development. We discuss lessons learned from its development and early application, reengineering it with business producibility in mind. We aim at closing a design-oriented research gap: we describe what the approach to employ MDSD in mobile computing is and to what extent it might be useful in general. These findings are embedded in a case-study inspired discussion of the aims of reengineering the approach.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    From the viewpoint of the natural sciences, the approach might also be called engineering science as rather aggressively proposed by Gruner and Groeze [27].

  2. 2.

    Apps implemented in the then old version of the DSL would be incompatible with the new generators, as would apps implemented with the new version of the DSL be with the old generators.

  3. 3.

    Cases are particularly reported for model-driven architecture (MDA) [28], which can be used in combination with MDSD and underlines the interest.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Sören Evers and con terra GmbH for their contribution to the reengineering of MD\(^2\). Sören’s work is particularly reflected in Table 1. Additionally, we would like to thank Klaus Fleerkötter, Daniel Kemper, Sandro Mesterheide and Jannis Strodtkötter for their contribution to the first version of MD\(^2\).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ERCIS, University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway

    Tim A. Majchrzak

  2. ERCIS, University of Münster, Münster, Germany

    Jan Ernsting

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  1. Tim A. Majchrzak
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Correspondence to Tim A. Majchrzak .

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  1. University of Gdansk, Sopot, Poland

    Stanislaw Wrycza

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Majchrzak, T.A., Ernsting, J. (2015). Reengineering an Approach to Model-Driven Development of Business Apps. In: Wrycza, S. (eds) Information Systems: Development, Applications, Education. SIGSAND/PLAIS 2015. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 232. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24366-5_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24366-5_2

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