Unifying Model- and Screen Sharing
Yentl Van Tendeloo, Hans Vangheluwe · 2018
The complexity of engineered systems is ever increasing, resulting in a plethora of larger and more diverse models. This increase in complexity can be addressed by collaborative model development, also known as Concurrent Engineering. We distinguish two distinct types of collaboration, based on the different collaboration needs between modellers: screenshare and modelshare. Screenshare allows users to collaborate-often at the same time-using exactly the same visualization. This implies that even the most trivial model modifications, even semantics-preserving ones, are replicated for all users. Modelshare allows users to share the same model, albeit with different visualizations, offering different views on the model, as standardized in ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010:2011. Both types of collaboration are currently in use. We present a unifying framework integrating both approaches. This unifying framework is similar to our existing framework for concrete syntax, reusing existing modelling tool infrastructure. This allows for different types of collaboration to be intertwined: screensharing with some users, while modelsharing with other users.