On Horizontal and Vertical Relationships between Models

Detecting, modeling and managing relationships between models are central tasks within model-driven engineering. By taking a simple view on software development, we distinguish in a vertical dimension between domain-specific models, core models, and executable models. A typical example for a vertical relationship is the refinement relationship beween a core model and an executable model. In the horizontal dimension, there may be several so-called property models which have the task to validate or verify particular properties of the core model. Software development coincides in our view with model development, and therefore finding the right models and their relationships is a crucial task