this is my thesis introduction.

1. Introduction
As the complexity of the required software grows, it became evident that modeling data and
application is a must. Before modeling it was difficult to maintain or modify an existing system. At the
earliest stages, UML modeling was of little benefit except that this model provide high level view for
the application. After UML became the industry De-facto standard, supporting tools start providing
features like generating simple prototype from the model “generating class template with functions
prototype�. However, synchronization problems between the model and generated code. Developers
have to manually ensure that changes in the code are reflected in the model and vice versa. Further
research work in this field allowed current UML tools to generate prototypes as well as auto synchronizing between the code and the model. They typically have proprietary code generation
systems with a fixed meta model. Furthermore, the Object Management Group (OMG) devised the
Model Driven Architecture (MDA) concepts [1] to allow the definition of data models, automation of
generation as well as easy integration, maintenance, testing and simulation of the software system.
Tools and frameworks supporting MDA, such as ANDROMDA [2], employs some parts of MDA that
allow the code generation and maintenance from data model. Unfortunately, these frameworks needs
high technical skills to benefit from. To overcome this problem, practitioners have developed models
for specific application domain; eXecutable Business Process (XBP) is a prominent goal for such an
effort. The ultimate objective of the XBP is to develop tools to support business analysts in the same
way CAD/CAM tools are used to support engineers [3]. Our goal is to realize the layout for the
eXecutable Business Process Framework (XBPF), identify the requirements, integration required and
specify the required steps for making/creating this framework to realize this objective. We propose an
architecture consisting of 8 different components to realize this system, (As shown in figure 1-1). The proposed system consists of:

1. a business process modeling tool.

tool that support the modeling of business process.

2. a MDA framework.

allow the definition of data models, automation of generation as well as easy integration,
maintenance, testing and simulation of the software system

3. a work flow management engine.

describes business processes in a common dialect that lets business people and developers
speak the same language.

4. a reverse engineering module.

extracting information from existing systems to be used in modeling the integration with other
systems.

5. an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB).

integrating applications, coordinating resources and manipulating information.

6. an ESB UML meta model.

description that defines the structure of the ESB UML integration models.

7. a transformation engine.

manipulate the business process model.

8. an interface tool that integrates this components.

a wizard tool for integrating the previous components.

the complete master thesis proposal attached.