RE: [soa-forum] Definitions of SOA (U)

["Chiusano Joseph" <chiusano_joseph@xxxxxxx>]

I believe that it should. More specifically, which type of interface (technical or business) depends on whether a service is primarily a technical service or a business service. Or rather, whether it is primarily technical-"facing" or business-"facing".

 

In my explanation below, I will use the term "technical interface" to mean an an electronic "contract" between two services, such as WSDL (with full knowledge that WSDL only provides part of what is needed in many cases). I will use the term "business interface" to imply the presence of a technical interface, plus business-level details about how a service fits within an organization's operations, the general benefits that can be realized from using the service, how it fits with the organization's strategic plans and goals, what organizational units may most benefit from it, etc.

 

An example of a "technical-facing" service would be a security service that enables services to be authenticated/authorized by other services/systems/data sources through the provisioning of security tokens (Kerberos, SAML, etc.). Such a service may, for example, be invoked by a data service (think Enterprise Information Integration (EII) and federated queries) in order to enable it to be authenticated and authorized (if all goes well) by the data source. I would assert that the interface between the data service and the security service is more of a technical interface than a business interface, as it reflects an electronic "contract" between the two services (the data service and the security service), and there is no need (or at least not as great a need as with business-facing services) to provide a business interface.

 

An example of a "business-facing" service would be a "shipment visibility" service that is part of a supply chain that provides the ability to know the location *and condition* (which is very important!) of cargo at any point in a supply chain. Such a service could, for example, enable a supply chain participant to know that certain cargo is damaged earlier than they otherwise would know (i.e. before the ultimate customer receives the cargo), thereby providing the participant with an opportunity to correct the situation as soon as possible. If this links to an operational performance measure/goal for the participant (e.g. decrease percentage of damaged goods on arrival by X percent this quarter), then that service is also supporting key operational needs, and potentially providing the organization with a distinct strategic advantage.

 

I would assert then that such a service (which I like to call an "operational" service, as it does not imply bias to commercial entities) requires both a technical interface and a business (operational) interface. The business (operational) interface would primarily be in written (human-readable) form, and would include such details as those I outlined above: how the service fits within an organization's operations (the "shipment visibility" service would be most closely aligned with its Supply Chain operations), the general benefits that can be realized from using the service (decreased amount of damaged goods on arrival, which ultimately leads to greater customer satisfaction), how it fits with the organization's strategic plans and goals (greater customer satisfaction can provide strategic advantages), what organizational units may most benefit from it (those that interface with Supply Chain operations), etc.

 

Thanks,

Joe

 

Joseph Chiusano

Associate

Booz Allen Hamilton

 

700 13th St. NW, Suite 1100

Washington, DC 20005

O: 202-508-6514 

C: 202-251-0731

Visit us online@ http://www.boozallen.com

 

---

From: soa-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:soa-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mabry, Roy, Mr, OSD-NII
Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 8:02 AM
To: Service-Oriented Architecture CoP
Cc: soa@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [soa-forum] Definitions of SOA (U)

UNCLASSIFIED

 

Hi,

 

In regard to the definition of service, shouldn't it include the notion that the service has to be exposed to the external environment by a technical and business interface?

 

Vr, Roy

---

From: soa-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:soa-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Chris Harding
Sent: Friday, May 05, 2006 8:31 AM
To: Service-Oriented Architecture CoP; 'Service-Oriented Architecture CoP'
Cc: soa@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [soa-forum] Definitions of SOA

Hi -

As a further update, here is the definition of SOA that 
was presented at The Open Group conference last week (and which we have shared 
with the OMG).

SOA is an architectural style that supports 
service orientation

•Service orientation
A way of a way 
of thinking in terms of services and service based development and the outcomes 
that services bring

•Service
A logical representation of a 
repeatable business activity that has a specified outcome (e.g., check customer 
credit; provide weather data, consolidate drilling reports), is self-contained 
and maybe composed of other Services. It is a black box to consumers of the 
Service

•Architectural Style
The combination of distinctive 
features in which Enterprise Architecture is done, or expressed

•The 
SOA Architectural style’s distinctive features:
  – Based on the 
design of the services comprising an enterprise’s
     
(or inter-enterprise) business processes. Services mirror 
real-world
     business activity
  – Service 
representation utilizes business descriptions. 
Service
     representation requires providing its 
context (including business
     process, goal, rule, 
policy, service interface and service component)
     and 
service orchestration to implement service
  – Has unique requirements 
on infrastructure. Implementations are
     recommended 
to use open standards, realize interoperability and 
     
location transparency.
  – Implementations are environment specific, 
they are constrained or
    enabled by context and must be 
described within their context.
  – Requires strong governance of 
service representation and implementation
  – Requires a “Litmus Test", 
which determined a “good service”

At 20:31 04/05/2006, Cory Casanave 
wrote:

As an update from the OMG meeting last week, the SOA SIG adopted the following definition of SOA;

 

Service Oriented Architecture is an architectural style for a community of providers and consumers of services to achieve mutual value, that:

• Allows participants in the communities to work together with minimal co-dependence or technology dependence
• Specifies the contracts to which organizations, people and technologies must adhere in order to participate in the community
• Provides for business value and business processes to be realized by the community
• Allows for a variety of technology to be used to facilitate interactions within the community

 

 

The corresponding definition of service has not yet been finalized but the sense of the group is that there would be both a business/domain centric notion of service as well as an interaction focused definition.

 

In both cases this seems to fit well with the notion of SOA that is evolving in this group and in the SOA Demo.

 

Regards,

Cory Casanave
 _________________________________________________________________
Subscribe/Unsubscribe/Config: http://colab.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/soa-forum/
Shared Files: http://colab.cim3.net/file/work/soa/
Community Portal: http://colab.cim3.net/
Community Wiki: http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?AnnouncementofSOACoP

Regards,

Chris
+++++

========================================================================
Dr. 
Christopher J. Harding
Forum Director for SOA and Semantic 
Interoperability
THE OPEN GROUP
Thames Tower, 37-45 Station Road, Reading 
RG1 1LX, UK
Mailto:c.harding@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Phone (mobile): +44 774 063 
1520
http://www.opengroup.org 
******************************************************************
IT 
Architecture Practitioners Conference
Hyatt Regency, Coral Gables, FL 
July 17-19, 2006
Member Meetings - July 17-21, 2006
http://opengroup.org/miami2006/
======================================================================== 
TOGAF is a trademark of The Open Group 
 _________________________________________________________________
Subscribe/Unsubscribe/Config: http://colab.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/soa-forum/
Shared Files: http://colab.cim3.net/file/work/soa/
Community Portal: http://colab.cim3.net/
Community Wiki: http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?AnnouncementofSOACoP    (01)