A method, system, software tool and computer program product for different modeling environments is described. A metamodel representation, termed a "definition graph" is configured as a directed weighted multi-graph representation of ordered pairs, being node and edge pairs. Each node and edge has an associated weight and attributes. The definition graph is validated. A user-generated model is then defined, and checked for compatibility with a validated metamodel. This is achieved by extracting a template graph from the instance graph of the user model as the basis for the comparison.