MDA Distilled: Principles of Model-Driven Architecture

Why Agile MDA?

To some, the notion of putting “agile” and “modeling” in the same sentence makes no sense. The modelers worry that “agile” is a synonym for “hacker” in its most pejorative sense, while the agilists see lumbering heavyweight processes (and quite possibly lumbering heavyweight methodologists) that deliver the wrong system late at great expense.

The conflict between the modelers and agile programmers is perceived to be fundamental and large, partly because of differing technical focus—“extreme” is an explicit reaction to deliberate processes—and partly because of hype. Yet in reality the gap is quite small. Many of the good ideas of the Agile Alliance and XP (such as Sustainable Development, Estimate to Improve, and, especially, Customer ...