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Model Driven Architecture (MDA) Quick Start Guide Helps Projects Leverage MDA

For more than a decade, Raytheon businesses have used Model Driven Architecture™ (MDA™) as applied to software — model driven software development (MDSD) — to improve our productivity; enhance product interoperability, reusability and maintainability; and reduce product defects and cost1.

MDA's benefits are obviously attractive, but, "It's been difficult to identify and access material about what's going on in Raytheon in MDSD," said Terri Potts, Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) Software Engineering Directorate MDA champion. No companywide introduction to general and Raytheon-specific MDA information existed. Now it does: the enterprise "Model Driven Architecture Quick Start Guide." Project managers, software developers, proposal teams — in fact, anyone who makes decisions relating to MDA, or who plans to use it effectively — will want the practical information that the guide contains.

The Enterprise Software Engineering and Technology Council, under executive sponsor Sylvia Courtney and chair Cindy Molin, assigned Terri Potts the task of forming a cross-business team to create a guide that reflected the interests of all the stakeholders2. Gari Palmer, an IDS contributor to the guide, explained, "It is an attempt to provide Raytheon management with enough knowledge and information to one, be able to dig down deeper into MDA if they want; two, understand that this is a technology with great potential for improved productivity; and three, talk to customers [who are] asking for this technology."

Model Behavior
As the term MDA implies, a model rather than source code defines the software application3. This model reflects the software's behavior and is platform-independent. Platform-specific code is then generated by a MDSD tool. The result is a system that is more maintainable, interoperable and reusable — and has fewer defects.

MDA also provides impressive productivity gains that can help keep Raytheon competitive and grow our business. Increased productivity means increased speed to market, an important benefit in these days of compressed schedules and fixed-price contracts. Judy Bevans, the Surveillance Radar Program Missile Warning Center (SRP MWC) Software sub-IPT lead, provides a dramatic example: "Within 15 months of contract award, the SRP MWC team achieved a 99 percent award fee by demonstrating actual mission software, containing no reuse. Without MDA, the team would not have been able to meet the customer-defined objectives specified in the award fee plan." MDA productivity increases should also help business-specific initiatives to succeed. For example, IDS is working aggressively to meet its "10 x 11" goal: increase IDS revenue to $10 billion by 2011.

Honing our MDA skills is a good idea, and the guide can help us do just that.

What's in it?
The guide includes an overview of MDA and MDSD concepts; the business case for MDA; the benefits it provides; decision criteria for determining its appropriateness for a program; how to bid; reuse and collaboration mechanisms; MDSD and the software process; recommended training; and how to use MDSD artifacts for various purposes, such as documentation and customer reviews. It also contains information about MDSD tools used by Raytheon businesses. The guide is not, however, a substitute for a mentor's advice, which is often needed by those using MDA for the first time.

The guide's reference material is particularly useful and includes lists of subject matter experts, presentations, books, Raytheon references, and links to related websites. The annotated bibliography listings help users find what they want quickly, reducing the MDSD learning curve.

Need more help?
IDS has created a set of powerful enablers to help users get up to speed quickly while ensuring that Raytheon's process for using MDA is followed:
  • IDS MDA Supplemental Information: General information and document references
  • MDA Software Development Plan (SDP) Modifications: What to say and where to say it in your SDP
  • Guide to MDA Project Planning: How to plan MDA project activities
  • Guide to MDA Software Startup: What to do and when to do it
  • Software Life Cycle Segments: Technical notes for each software development phase
  • MDA Transformation Information Guide: Instructions and files for generating code and documentation
  • Guide to Calculating/Bidding Productivity: for MDA-based components
"The goal of the enablers," said Gari Palmer, "is to facilitate the adoption of MDA for IDS programs. Our goal is to make it easy to get started and to provide guidelines for success with an MDA program." These enablers, though created for IDS programs, can be used by other Raytheon businesses that adopt the same MDSD tools as IDS. Network Centric Systems also has MDA enablers:
  • MDA Landscape: Projects, tools used, and contact information
  • The NCS MDD Deployment Guide
  • MDA Software Implementation and Test: Tool-specific implementation information
The NCS enablers are also tool-specific, but can be leveraged by Raytheon businesses that use the same MDSD tools.

Status
The guide is being used by several Raytheon businesses. It is a living document and will change as our experience with MDA and MDSD evolves. To assist in this process, a mechanism is available to enable users to make suggestions, corrections or additions.

How to access the guide and enablers
Raytheon employees can obtain a copy of the guide at the SED Model Driven Architecture page. Select the Raytheon MDA/MDSD Quick Start Guide link.

The NCS enablers are stored in an eRoom™. To gain access, please e-mail NCS MDSD champion peter_a_keppler@raytheon.com.

The guide and the enablers are Competition Sensitive. Raytheon programs can share them with their customers, but not with competitors or tool vendors.

For more information on the guide, please e-mail gari_b_palmer@raytheon.com.


eRoom is a registered trademark of EMC Corporation.

1For more information about Raytheon's MDA experience, see "After Solid Success Raytheon Presses Forward with MDA," Raytheon Technology Today, Issue 2, 2007, pp 24–25.

2Content inputs or review comments were provided by David Bainbridge, IDS; Neil Dayal, NCS; Andrea Duran, IIS; Gari Palmer, IDS; Terri Potts, IDS (lead); and Andrew Vandivort, RMS.

3The guide most often uses the term MDSD to reflect its focus on software development. However, because most readers are more familiar with the Object Management Group's MDA, this article will use MDA except where such use would introduce an error.