Beyond Code: An Introduction to Model-Driven Software Development (CISC 844, Winter 2026) Schedule & Reading List [Home] [Content] [Schedule] [Projects]

Tentative course schedule

Notes:

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Week	Date	Topic	Slides	Lead reviewers
1	Jan 5,7	Course info: Intro, motivation, admin Content: What is a model? Models everywhere! Models in software engineering Readings: None	part1_4up, part2_4up
2	Jan 12,14	Expressing models of software: UML Content: Class diagrams, object diagrams, state machines, sequence diagrams Readings: None Assignments: Assignment 1 HCL Model RealTime download and installation instructions: See Assignment 1 Video tutorial: Informal system description, how to define structure, how to define the behaviour Sample models: Go to here. Instructions on how to import these models into Model RealTime can be found on the Assignment 1 page.
3	Jan 19,21	MDSD with UML-RT and HCL Model RealTime I Content: UML-RT: Basic concepts (capsules, protocols, ports, basic state machines) [Moh21a,Moh21b]. Model RealTime: Installation, basic use, examples. In class exercise (Wed): What is a restaurant? Readings: None Assignments: Assignment 2	Parts 1 to 3, 4-up
4	Jan 26,28	MDSD with UML-RT and HCL Model RealTime II Content: UML-RT: Basic concepts (capsules, protocols, ports, basic state machines) [Moh21a,Moh21b]. Model RealTime (installation, basic use, examples) Readings R1 (Actors): [Akka17] Readings R2 (State machines): [Sam09, pages 1-1 to 1-8 and 3-1 to 3-6]		R1: all R2: all
5	Feb 2,4	MDSD with UML-RT and HCL Model RealTime III Content: UML-RT: More on ports & state machines [Moh21a,Moh21b] Readings R3 (Complexity, abstraction & automation): [Kra07,Spo02] Assignments: Assignment 3 In class exercise: Can you get there from here?	Part 4, 4-up	R3: Rebecca
6	Feb 9,11	MDSD with UML-RT & HCL Model RealTime IV Content: UML-RT: Design guidelines, advanced features [Moh21a,Moh21b] Readings R4 Readings R5	Part 5, 4-up,	R4: Liam R5: Jimmy
	Feb 16,18	No class Reading week
7	Feb 23,25	Domain Specific Languages I Content: Meta modeling, Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) Readings: None In class exercise (on Monday): Take it Apart
8	Mar 2,4	Domain Specific Languages II Content: Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF), DSL examples, pros & cons, definition, metamodeling Readings R6 Readings R7 Assignments: Assignment 4	DSLs, 4-up EMF, 4-up	R6: Peter R7: Nick
9	Mar 9,11	Domain Specific Languages III Content: Abstract syntax, concrete syntax, semantics, tooling, Xtext, debugging models Readings R8 Readings R9 Sample EMF projects: Go to Samples of EMF projects		R8: Sahil R9: Ahmed
10	Mar 16,18	Domain Specific Languages III Content: Abstract syntax, concrete syntax, semantics, tooling, Xtext, debugging models Readings R10 Readings R11 Sample EMF projects: Go to Samples of EMF projects		R10: Allix, Marcus R11: Jihyeon, James
11	Mar 23,25	Domain Specific Languages IV Content: Abstract syntax, concrete syntax, semantics, tooling, Xtext, debugging models Readings R12 Readings R13 Sample DSLs: Go to Examples of DSLs in Xtext		R12: Huizi R13: Zedrick
12	Mar 30, Apr 1	Domain Specific Languages IV Content: Abstract syntax, concrete syntax, semantics, tooling, Xtext, debugging models Readings: None

Readings

• Actors & state machines
  • R1: [Akka17] Akka Documentation. 2017.
    • Why modern systems need a new programming model (here)
    • How the Actor Model Meets the Needs of Modern, Distributed Systems (here)
    • Actor Systems (here)
    • What is an Actor? (here)
  • R2: [Sam09] M. Samek. A Crash Course in UML State Machines. Article based on Chapter 2 of the book "Practical UML Statecharts in C/C++ Second Edition". March 2009.
• Complexity, abstraction & automation
  • R3: [Kra07] J. Kramer. Is abstraction the key to computing? Communications of the ACM, Volume 50, Issue 4, Pages 36-42. April 2007. 7 pages
  • R3: [Spo02] J. Spolsky. The Law of Leaky Abstractions. Joel on Software Blog. 2002. 6 pages
  • R3: [Cha21] R.N. Charette. How software is eating the car. IEEE Spectrum. June 2021
• Applications I
  • R4: [DCD+20] G. Daniel, J. Cabot, L. Deruelle, M. Derras. Xatkit: A multimodal low-code chatbot development framework. IEEE Access, vol. 8. 2020
  • R5: [G+25] H. da Giao et al. A Metamodel for Reengineering CI/CD Pipelines. ACM/IEEE 28th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MODELS'25). 2025
  • R6: [BSK16] B. Berger, K. Sohr, R. Koschke. Automatically Extracting Threats from Extended Data Flow Diagrams. 8th International Symposium on Engineering Secure Software and Systems (ESSoS'16). 2016
  • R7: [APM+18] F. Alrimawi, L. Pasquale, D. Mehta, B. Nuseibeh. I've seen this before: sharing cyber-physical incident knowledge. IEEE/ACM 1st International Workshop on Security Awareness from Design to Deployment (SEAD). 2018
• Applications II
  • R8: [TDE+25] J. Trasobares, A. Domingo, J. Echeverria, L. Arcega, C. Cetina. Deepening our Understanding on the use of Models and Code in Game Software Engineering: A Controlled Experiment in Unreal Engine. ACM/IEEE 28th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MODELS'25). 2025
  • R9: [DSE+25] J. Dingel, A. Sun, H. Elabd, N. Yao, A. Boulos, A. Tizghadam. Project Templating and Onboarding With Cookiecutter: Foundations, Uses, and Guidelines. Software: Practice and Experience 56. Wiley. 2026
  • R10: [ASC+25] K. Ahmed, J. Song, B. Chen, O. Wei, B. Zheng. SHERPA: A Model-Driven Framework for Large Language Model Execution. ACM/IEEE 28th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MODELS'25). 2025
  • R11: [MCC+25] S. Morales, R. Clariso, J. Cabot. Impromptu: a framework for model-driven prompt engineering. Software and Systems Modeling 24. Springer. 2025
• MDE and software engineering: future
  • R12: [RRN+25] J. Romeo, M. Raglianti, C. Nagy, M. Lanza. UML is Back. Or is it? Investigating the Past, Present, and Future of UML in Open Source Software. IEEE/ACM 47th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE'25). 2025.
  • R13: [XSB+25] C. Xiao, D. Stahl, J. Bosch. UML Sequence Diagram Generation: A Multi-Model, Multi-Domain Evaluation. IEEE/ACM 47th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE'25). 2025.

Supporting material

• MDE
  • Marco Brambilla, Jordi Cabot, Manuel Wimmer. Model-Driven Software Engineering in Practice. 2nd Edition. Morgan and Claypool. 2017. Available as ebook (search Queen's University Library for book title)
  • [Lud03] J. Ludewig. Models in Software Engineering - An Introduction. Software & Systems Modeling, 2(1): 5-14. March 2003.
  • [Sch06] D.C. Schmidt. Model-Driven Engineering. IEEE Computer, Volume 39, Issue 2. Feb. 2006. Page(s):25 - 31.
• UML
  • M. Fowler. UML Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Standard Object Modeling Language (3rd Edition). Addison Wesley. 2004. Available as ebook (search Queen's University Library for book title)
  • G. Booch, J. Rumbaugh, I. Jacobson. UML User Guide. 2nd Edition. Addison Wesley. 2005. Available as ebook (search Queen's University Library for book title)
  • [Cab24] J. Cabot. Best UML cheatsheet and UML reference guides.
  • [SSH+16] Supporting material for 'UML @ Classroom' book by Seidl, Scholz, Huemer, and Kappel.
  • [Amb25a] Online UML Class Diagram tutorial by Scott Ambler (Agile Modeling).
  • [Amb25b] Online UML State Machine tutorial by Scott Ambler (Agile Modeling).
  • [Amb25c] Online UML Sequence Diagram tutorial by Scott Ambler (Agile Modeling).
  • [OMG17] Object Management Group. UML 2.5.1 Specification. Dec 2017.
  • [Sel12] B. Selic. The Less Well Known UML. Formal Methods for Model-Driven Engineering. Lecture Notes in Computer Science Volume 7320, 2012, pp 1-20.
• UML-RT
  • [Moh24a] M. Mohlin. Modeling Real-Time Applications in HCL Model RealTime.
  • [Moh24b] M. Mohlin. UML-RT States and Transitions.
  • [Moh24c] M. Mohlin. UML-RT Choice vs Junction Points.
  • [Sel98] B. Selic and J. Rumbaugh. Using UML for modeling complex real-time systems. Languages, Compilers, and Tools for Embedded Systems (LCTES'98). Montreal, Canada. 1998.
  • [PD14] E. Posse, J. Dingel. An executable formal semantics for UML-RT. Software & Systems Modeling 15 (1), 179-217. 2016.
• HCL Model RealTime
  • [HCL24a] HCL Technologies. Model RealTime User's Guide.
  • [HCL24b] HCL Technologies. Building C++ Applications with Model Realtime.
  • [Moh24e] C++ RT Services Library.
  • [Moh24f] M. Mohlin. Debugging DevOps Model RealTime Models.
  • [HCL24c] HCL Technologies. Model Debugger Introduction. Video.
  • [HCL24d] HCL Wiki. Look for 'Model RealTime'.
• Design Patterns
  • [RG25] Refactoring Guru Website. Design Patters. 2025.
• EMF
  • [WB23] EMF tutorial by Andrzej Wasowski and Thorsten Berger (part of their DSL book).
  • [Vog16] Online EMF tutorial by Lars Vogel.
  • [Rin24] YouTube videos for an EMF Tutorial based on [Vog16] by Jan-Oliver Ringert.
  • [ES16] Online EMF tutorial by EclipseSource.
  • [Ecl16] EMF Documentation.
• DSLs
  • [WB23]A. Wasowski, T. Berger. Domain-Specific Languages: Effective Modeling, Automation, and Reuse. Springer. 2023.
  • [Voe13] M Voelter. DSL Engineering: Designing, Implementing and Using Domain-Specific Languages. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. 2013.
  • [Voe21] M. Voelter. Is a DSL suitable for you? 2021.
  • [Tom17] F. Tomassetti. The complete guide to (external) Domain Specific Languages. Blog post at https://tomassetti.me/domain-specific-languages. February 20, 2017.
  • [Fow21] M. Fowler. Domain-Specific Languages Guide. 2021.
  • [Bar21] M. Barash. Introductory course on domain-specific languages with Xtext and MPS. 2021.

Last modified: Sun Jan 11 16:16:44 EST 2026