itemis SECURE is based on an open source framework called Meta Programming System (MPS), developed by JetBrains. MPS is a development and runtime environment for domain-specific languages (DSL). Please refer to the MPS documentation for further information: https://www.jetbrains.com/help/mps/mps-user-s-guide.html.
Every project in itemis SECURE consists of an arbitrary number of so-called solutions. Each solution contains one or multiple models. All further data is added to these models. By default, there are two solutions:
Because Catalogs and Method Configuration are tightly coupled, they are also called a Composition. A Composition may be used for different projects.
For every model it is possible to define dependencies on other models in the project. This makes elements from the referenced model visible. The referenced model is called a library in this case. A typical example for libraries are the Catalogs and the Method Configuration. As mentioned before, the Method Configuration defines several parameters of an Analysis (available Impact Options, Feasibility Options, calculation rules, thresholds, etc.). Catalogs contain predefined Threat and Control Classes.
The data stored in each model is further partitioned using so-called chunks.