Model-Driven Approaches for Reverse Engineering—A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Many organizations depend on software systems to accomplish their daily tasks, but these systems need to be maintained and evolved to cope with various changes and requirements. Before starting to maintain and evolve software systems, it is necessary to understand them. Reverse engineering plays a crucial role in comprehending various aspects of software systems by extracting different models and diagrams that represent the structure and behaviour of software systems. This article presents a systematic literature review (SLR) to understand the current state of research in model-driven engineering (MDE) for reverse engineering software systems. The considered articles came from five electronic databases (Scopus, IEEE Xplore, Web of Science, ACM Digital Library, and Google Scholar), and were supplemented by additional articles recommended by experts and provided by manual snowballing. From 538 surveyed papers, 83 principal studies were selected, which present the main characteristics of 64 model-driven reverse engineering (MDRE) approaches. These approaches are analyzed and evaluated based on their objectives and characteristics. Additionally, research gaps and areas where more research is needed are also identified. Therefore, the review provides comprehensive answers to several widely interesting questions for researchers and practitioners who are considering using MDRE.

Keywords

• Application program
• legacy system
• model-driven reverse engineering (MDRE)
• model-driven re-engineering
• software application