Many challenging problems in information systems engineering involve the manipulation of complex metadata artifacts or models, such as database schema, interface specifications, or object diagrams, and mappings between models. Applications solving metadata manipulation problems are complex and hard to build. The goal of generic model management is to reduce the amount of programming needed to solve such problems by providing a database infrastructure in which a set of high-level algebraic operators are applied to models and mappings as a whole rather than to their individual building blocks.
This book presents a systematic study of the concepts and algorithms for generic model management. The first prototype of a generic model management system is described, the algebraic operators are introduced and analyzed, and novel algorithms for implementing them are developed. Using the prototype system and the operators presented, solutions are developed for several practically relevant problems, such as change propagation and reintegration.