A Categorization of Interoperability Issues in Networks of Transformations.

Bidirectional transformations (BX) are a common approach for keeping two types of models consistent, but consistency preservation between more than two types of models is not researched well. One solution is the composition of BX to networks of transformations. Nevertheless, such networks are prone to failures due to interoperability issues between the individual BX, which are independently developed by various experts. We therefore systematically identify and categorize such issues. First, we structure the process of consistency specification into different conceptual levels. Then we develop a catalog of potential mistakes, which we derive from those levels, and consequential failure types. Finally, we discuss strategies to avoid mistakes at the different levels. This catalog is beneficial for transformation developers and transformation language developers. It improves awareness in developers of potential mistakes and consequential failures, enables the development of techniques to avoid specific mistakes by construction, and eases the identification of reasons for failures.