On the modularization provided by concern-oriented reuse

Reuse is essential in modern software engineering, and hence also in the context of model-driven engineering (MDE). Concern-Oriented Reuse (CORE) proposes a new way of structuring model-driven software development where models of the system are modularized by domains of abstraction within units of reuse called concerns. Within a concern, models are further decomposed and modularized by views and features. High-level concerns can reuse lower-level concerns, and models within a concern can extend other models belonging to the same concern, resulting in complex inter- and intra-concern dependencies. To clearly specify what dependencies are allowed between models belonging to the same or to different concerns, CORE advocates a three-part interface to describe each concern (variation, customization, and usage interfaces). This paper presents the CORE metamodel that formalizes the CORE concepts and enables the integration of different mod- elling languages within the CORE framework.