A Systematic Approach to Fostering Engineering of Industrial Domain-Specific Modelling Languages

Domain-Specific Modelling Languages (DSMLs) help modellers and domain experts in various domains such as healthcare, energy, information technology, and so on, in reducing the gap between the problem space and the solution space by placing models at the centre of development activities. This shift towards model-driven development allows modellers to design complex, heterogeneous real-world abstractions of their systems. In an industrial setting, the methodologies to describe a systematic engineering process for developing modular and reusable DSMLs is still largely neglected. This thesis is aimed at providing the means to engineer graphical DSMLs focussed on industrial contexts. This work presents a systematic approach for the engineering of industrial DSMLs by composing reusable language infrastructure parts. The reusable units of a DSML, termed DSML building blocks, consist of reusable language components contributing to the technical definition of the language. The language components compose through different forms of language composition to form heterogeneous, integrated DSMLs. A bidirectional exchange mechanism is detailed to foster the interoperability of common language infrastructure parts between modelling environments. This work provides design decisions that language engineers must consider to elevate the experience of modellers. An approach for integrating methods and techniques for guidance and recommendations to modellers is detailed for model-aware and dynamic views focussing on the current modelling situation. This thesis presents approaches to modularly build reusable DSML units and allows language engineers to provide an integrated language infrastructure ultimately aimed at improving the modelling experience of practitioners in the industry.