Programming is contained in Modeling is contained in Engineering

摘要

The proven ability of some modeling languages to be used as both design and implementation languages has raised hopes of a seamless blending between design and implementation, a capability that only seems possible in the domain of software engineering. In turn, this has led to methodological questions on how best to take advantage of models and modeling technologies in the development of complex software systems. To provide some insight into this question, we start with a review of the role and types of models that are found in traditional engineering disciplines and compare that to current practices in model-based software engineering in industrial practice. The conclusion reached is that, despite some very unique characteristics of software, there does not seem to be any compelling reason to treat the handling of models in software engineering in a radically different way than what is done in engineering in general.