Model-driven development (MDD) is a technique that enables initial specification and development of software systems, independent of implementation technology. The initial models are refined over time to account for specific implementation constraints, and ultimately provide a basis for automated code generation. Experts have applied this methodology to a variety of application domains and systems, and it has influenced the development of model-driven Web engineering (MDWE).

The authors cite some 23 MDD methods that have been applied to Web applications development. They present a detailed survey of requirements specification in the context of nine of these methodologies, selected from the broader field of MDD methods because they propose techniques specific to MDWE, rather than applying unmodified traditional MDD techniques to MDWE.

Given the variety of aspects addressed by software requirements, it would be difficult to evaluate even this subset of techniques in terms of their effectiveness in specifying all types of requirements. For this reason, the authors have narrowed their focus to functionality, data, and navigability requirements, and suggest that these are the primary focus in the context of MDWE. They then handle the analysis of each MDWE requirements specification methodology in chronological order.

This paper is a treasure trove of information and sources for the state of the art in MDWE. The chronology of methodologies in the first figure is invaluable in clarifying the place of various current techniques used in industry. The evaluation and discussion of the pros and cons of each technique throughout the paper help to lay the foundation for future evaluation and refinement of these approaches. It will be interesting to see how these methods evolve in the future to address the increasing complexity of Web applications.