This paper proposes and validates a new methodology to facilitate the analysis of modern data-intensive applications. A major part of handling the processing needs of these applications consists in using the appropriate Model-of-Computation (MoC) which guarantees accurate performance estimations. Our methodology introduces one major contribution that facilitates the analysis step in the co-design flow. It is based on an intermediate level of abstraction implementing the Parameterized and Interfaced Synchronous Dataflow (ΠSDF) semantics. In the proposed methodology, a system designer models the embedded system using the standardised Modeling and Analysis of Real-Time and Embedded Systems (MARTE) profile. High-level models are then refined towards intermediate level models by following the Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) transformation paradigm. The model-to-model transformation permitting to reach the ΠSDF level starting from a MARTE-compliant model is detailed and validated in this paper. It is shown to facilitate system analysis.