SpringOne08: MDA and Spring

Late publication... didn't have the time back then ;)

Capgemini NL featured talk.
Begins with some basic concepts of MD*.

Then describes what an MDA tool is supposed to do and who's going to use it.
This is one point of view.

Pitfalls:
- Prevent "architecture-driven modeling" using markings.
- Keep applying traditional patterns of re-use, even if code generation can allow to generate a lot of boiler-plate code.
- Don't "u-em-ellify" everything.
- Don't touch your generated files (I tend to disagree... it just means that you need appropriate tools for that, though it does have problems with refactoring, and he recommends using Abstract classes).

Recommended tooling:
- MDA tools: OSS=> OAW, Acceléo Commercial=> OptimalJ
- be sure to have markings available

Advantages of MDA:
- From his experience, MDA allows to shift most of the issues in an application from the boilerplate code towards the business code. It seems obvious, but it's always nice to have additional practical feedback.
- Development and/or project speedup (I guess it depends on the side of the project and the extent of the use of MDA).
- Consistent code: enforce architectural patterns
- more flexibility

Prerequisites:
- knowledge of the models / languages
- more tools, more learning curve
- creating templates is hard: garbage in == garbage out

In the end a quite conventional talk, yet interesting.