TRADITIONAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES - Software Design for Six-Sigma: A Roadmap for Excellence - page 37

such path that could be used for rapid development of a stand-alone system. And
thus the design of the architectures is a matter of primary strategic importance to the
enterprise as a whole because it directly affects the enterprise's ability to seize new
business opportunities (Rapid Application Development, 1997).

2.3.1.10.4 Model-Driven Engineering (MDE). Model-driven engineering
(MDE) focuses on creating models that capture the essential features of a design. A
modeling paradigm for MDE is considered effective if its models make sense from
the point of view of the user and can serve as a basis for implementing systems. The
models are developed through extensive communication among product managers,
designers, and members of the software development team. As the models approach
completion, they enable the development of software and systems.
The best-known MDE initiative is the Object Management Group (OMG) initiative
Model-Driven Architecture (MDA), which is a registered trademark of OMG (Need-
ham, MA) (Leveson, 2004). Another related acronym is Model-Driven Development
(MDD), which also is an OMG trademark (Leveson, 2004), (Schmidt, 2006).

2.3.1.10.5 Advantages

MDE is a very promising technique that can be used to improve the current
processes of system engineering.
Using MDD, software can become more verifiable, scalable, maintainable, and
cheaper.

2.3.1.10.6 Disadvantages

Challenges in modeling languages, separation of concerns, model management,
and model manipulation.
Too many questions left on the table about actual implementation of model
management and model manipulation in day-to-day operations.
The user must have a good working knowledge about the models that are input.
This might not always be true and may result in errors from the merging process
because the user chose the incorrect merge.

2.3.1.10.7 Suitability

More recent research is being pored into the methodology for further develop-
ment.

2.3.1.11 Iterative Development Processes. Iterative development (Press-
man, 2000) prescribes the construction of initially small but even larger portions of
a software project to help all those involved to uncover important issues early before
problems or faulty assumptions can lead to disaster. Commercial developers prefer
iterative processes because they allow customers who do not know how to define
what they want to reach their design goals.