Two basic correctness properties for ATL transformations: Executability and coverage

Abstract

Model transformations play a cornerstone role with the emergence of Model Driven Engineering (MDE), where models are transformed from higher to lower levels of abstraction. Unfortunately, a quick and easy way to check the correctness of model transformations is still missing, which compromises their quality (and in turn, the quality of the target models generated from them). In this paper we propose a lightweight and efficient method that performs a static analysis of the ATL rules with respect to two correctness properties we define: (1) weak executability, which determines if there is some scenario in which an ATL rule can be safely applied without breaking the target metamodel integrity constraints; and (2) coverage, which ensures a set of ATL rules allow addressing all elements of the source and target metamodels. In both cases, our method returns meaningful feedback that helps repairing the possible detected inconsistencies.