What is Model-Driven Development?

João Simões de Abreu, July 6, 2021

Throughout the evolution of organizations digitizing operations, the size and number of functionalities in software kept increasing. Using traditional methods to keep evolving the systems is unmanageable. Managers either have a considerable task force to maintain the code or let it rot and keep acquiring new systems.

Unfortunately, due to lack of knowledge and the consistent mindset of “we do it this way because this is how we have always done it”, organizations’ software development efforts still resemble the pre-industrial society: a large workforce (with incredibly intricate roles) is required to drive small results.
Enter model-driven development, which provides advantages in productivity over every other method (mainly traditional manual coding). With this methodology, you can write and implement software quickly, effectively, and at minimum cost.

What is Model-Driven Development, and how does it work?

Model-driven development is the most suitable development methodology for large organizations. It focuses on constructing a software model that specifies all the business rules and how the system should work before the code is generated.

This model-driven approach, also known as model-driven engineering or model-driven software development, allows users to build complex and errorless software via an easy-to-understand interface.

More importantly, due to the understandable structure, model-driven development tackles one of the ongoing pains in the software industry: the miscommunication between business needs, product experts, and developers.

With Quidgest’s GENIO, a model-driven extreme low-code tool, non-technical people can work in technology-based projects without hundreds of hours of training. We are firm believers it should be the technology to adapt to business needs and not the way around, and the model-driven approach helps us accomplish this mission.

Abstraction & Collaboration

In Model-driven development, complex software gets abstracted into easy-to-define and errorless code. By abstraction, we mean the concentration on relevant aspects of the problem and ignoring the unimportant ones. Therefore, it is a vital feature when building modern complex solutions with countless moving parts. Once the abstraction is set, the models are translated into code, and the platform generates a functional solution.

Software engineering’s primary purpose is (or should be) overcoming complexity, and the model-driven approach is bridging this gap. In fact, Gartner predicts that, by 2024, 80% of technology services and products will be built by non-IT professionals – a reality that has been compounded by the COVID-19 crisis, which has expanded the amount and type of use cases technology is needed to fulfill.

Automation & Productivity

Today’s software development reality is clear: a large workforce is required to drive small results. However, this should not be the case, and most engineering fields have already automated most of their intense manual chores – unfortunately, automation is not frequent in the software engineering field.

While abstraction enhances the collaboration between technical and non-technical profiles, automation increases productivity.

GENIO automates the time-intensive activities in a project. The result is clear: the ability to output 1330 function points per month – nearly 100 times more than a regular manual developer and eight times more than traditional low-code platforms.

As discussed in a recent talk, software’s most important feature is not functioning. Instead, the way a solution is developed is the most crucial feature. In an ever-changing world, tech solutions must be built to change, not to last.

Since 1988, Quidgest has been a pioneer in using Artificial Intelligence and Models. If you would like to explore the wonders of the Model-Driven Development World through GENIO, contact us. You can also explore the courses at Quidgest’s Academy.

ABOUT

Quidgest is a global technology company headquartered in Lisbon and a pioneer in intelligent software modeling and generation. Through its unique generative AI platform, Genio, develops complex, urgent, and specific systems, ready to evolve continuously, flexible, and scalable for various technologies and platforms. Partners and large organizations such as governments, multinational companies, and global multilateral institutions use Quidgest’s solutions to achieve their digital strategies.