An Extended UML Metamodel for Efficient Application Design and Development

Information Systems are becoming more complex as time passes and this complexity needs to be managed. Moreover, the complete matching between applications requisites and delivered software systems is one of the most important elements in software development, since cost effectiveness, efficiency and customer satisfaction are the key of success. In order to achieve these goals, many designers and analysts are applying Model-driven Engineering and UML modelling to their projects, which is gaining an important relevance in the Information Technology environment. This article proposes an extension to the standard UML metamodel with the scope to improve the development process and to grant a high quality of the software delivered to the customers. The metamodel extension contains a collection of elements, with a proper semantic and a set of rules to link them in order to create robust and expressive models, which can be transformed almost seamlessly into code with the help of a Java framework developed in conjunction with the custom UML profile.