Hybrid Collaborative Modeling: Problem Analysis, Requirements, and Architectural Principles

By: Léo Olivier, Marcos Didonet Del Fabro, Sébastien Gérard

Abstract

Modeling is inherently a collaborative activity, as it provides stakeholders with a common language for structuring domain-specific knowledge. This makes support for diverse collaboration scenarios a central requirement for modeling tools; however, most existing tools are designed primarily for either real-time or asynchronous collaboration. An emerging workflow that has so far received limited attention, yet is widely valued by practitioners, is hybrid collaborative modeling. In this setting, stakeholders alternate between synchronous and asynchronous work, with real-time subgroups coordinating locally while overall progress is maintained asynchronously across time zones and organizations. This article lays the foundations for the architectural requirements required to support hybrid collaborative modeling. We first introduce a classification framework for collaboration architectures and use it to compare existing collaborative modeling tools, highlighting their limited support for hybrid workflows. Building on this analysis, we present a novel architectural approach: Local-First Collaborative Modeling. Finally, we present a reference implementation approach based on replicated data types, intended to demonstrate feasibility and to guide future implementations.

Keywords

Model-Based Systems Engineering, Collaborative modeling, Local-First software, Operation-based versioning, Conflict-free Replicated Data Types

Cite as:

Léo Olivier, Marcos Didonet Del Fabro, Sébastien Gérard, “Hybrid Collaborative Modeling: Problem Analysis, Requirements, and Architectural Principles”, Journal of Object Technology, Volume 25, no. 3 ( 2026), pp. 3:351-364, doi:10.5381/jot.2026.25.3.a27.