Supporting Method Creation, Adaptation and Execution with a Low-code Approach

Method Engineering emerged in the 90s as a discipline to design, construct and adapt methods, techniques and tools for the development of information systems. By executing a method step by step, users follow a systematic and well-defined way to attain the results which the method was created for. To support the creation of methods in a more guided and systematic way, a method framework can be used as a template, allowing one to benefit from the expertise of method engineers who regrouped their good practices in such frameworks. However, the creation and adoption of a method may be difficult if there is no tool to support these activities. In addition, method engineers may not have the programming skills to implement such a tool. In this context, we propose an approach inspired by the low-code paradigm for Method Engineering. The approach helps method engineers in creating new methods or adapting an already existing framework that integrates some construction rules for guidance. Our approach automatically provides tool support so that method experts can actually execute the method. This paper presents the approach through a proof of concept implementation, and a first empirical evaluation through semi-structured interviews.