A Metamodeling Approach to Evolution Marie-Noëlle TERRASSE

Abstract. With the increasing complexity of systems being modeled, analysis & design move towards more and more abstract methodologies. Most of them rely on metamodeling tools that employ multi-view models and the four-layer meta-modeling architecture. Our idea is to use the metamodeling approach to classify and to constraint the possible evolutions of an information system with the effect to improve both detection of evolution conflicts and disciplined reuse. Within the domain of UML metamodeling, a refinement of the metamodel-level classifica-tion is proposed that includes bases for defining a metric of the evolution (in terms of distance between metamodels).