A BEHAVIORAL PERSPECTIVE IN META-MODELING

Meta-models are essential artifacts for specifying and reasoning on models and on methods. Traditionally, meta-modeling follows the "data" perspective and only the structural part of a model is represented. The "process" and "behavior" perspectives are neglected or partly represented, and for a process meta-model, such specifications express its enactment and execution semantics. From a Computer Aided Method Engineering (CAME) point of view, such specifications are necessary for enacting the process part of a method when specified. In this paper, we defend the position that in process meta-modeling, it is essential to include the behavior perspective, and that event-based meta-modeling can help in expressing, graphically and at high level of abstraction, the executable semantics of a process modeling notation. We illustrate this approach through the construction of event-based meta-models for the intention oriented Map notation.