<< Back to 'Fields of Research'

Motivation

The core advantage of object-oriented concepts can be seen in the high level of abstraction they permit during all stages of software development. The proper use of these concepts can substantially contribute to the reuse of software artefacts. In addition to that, it can efficiently promote the integrity of corporate information systems. At the same time, object-oriented approaches help to reduce the renowned frictions between analysis and implementation. However, exploiting the potential of object-oriented software development requires a number of obstacles to be overcome. They include conceptual deficiencies of existing modelling languages, semantic frictions between modelling and implementation level languages ("impedance mismatch"). It also, has to be remembered that software developers sometimes fail to use object-oriented concepts properly. 

Topics

Our research is focused on four areas: basic concepts, guidelines for the proper use of object-oriented concepts, integration with other languages for enterprise modelling, evaluation of methods.

While object-oriented concepts are regarded as "natural" by many, they are in some cases very different from the corresponding notions of the natural language. This is evident in, among other things, the case for generalization/specialization or the redefinition of inherited features. At the same time, object-oriented modelling languages include ambiguous concepts that jeopardize the seamless development of code from models. In order to cope with such difficulties, we developed additional language concepts, like 'delegation', which were embedded in an object-oriented modelling language, MEMO-OML. Furthermore, an object calculus to formalize the language core of MEMO-OML was specified within a dissertation. To guide the development of high quality models, we create process models and principles of good design.

Static object models are not sufficient for analyzing and designing corporate information systems. Instead, further languages for (-> enterprise modelling) are required. However, often existing languages for process modelling and those for object-oriented modelling are not integrated. Therefore, we work on interface concepts to integrate, for instance, the UML with our business process modelling language.