Taming uncertainty with MDE: an historical perspective

Uncertainty in Informatics can stem from various sources, whether ontological (inherent unpredictability, such as aleatory factors) or epistemic (due to insufficient knowledge). Effectively handling uncertainty, encompassing both ontological and epistemic aspects, to create predictable systems is a key objective for a significant portion of the software engineering community, particularly within the model-driven engineering (MDE) realm. Numerous techniques have been proposed over the years, leading to evolving trends in model-based software development paradigms. This paper revisits the history of MDE, aiming to pinpoint the primary aspects of uncertainty that these paradigms aimed to tackle upon their introduction. Our claim is that MDE progressively came after more and more aspects of uncertainty, up to the point that it could now help fully embrace it.