Abdul Allam

SOMA: a method for developing service-oriented solutions

Service-oriented modeling and architecture (SOMA) has been used to conduct projects of varying scope in multiple industries worldwide for the past five years. We report on the usage and structure of the method used to effectively analyze, design, implement, and deploy service-oriented architecture (SOA) projects as part of a fractal model of software development. We also assert that the construct of a service and service modeling, although introduced by SOA, is a software engineering best practice for which an SOA method aids both SOA usage and adoption. In this paper we present the latest updates to this method and share some of the lessons learned. The SOMA method incorporates the key aspects of overall SOA solution design and delivery and is integrated with existing software development methods through a set of placeholders for key activity areas, forming what we call solution templates. We also present a fractal model of software development that can enable the SOMA method to evolve in an approach that goes beyond the iterative and incremental and instead leverages method components and patterns in a recursive, self-similar manner opportunistically at points of variability in the life cycle.

S3: A Service-Oriented Reference Architecture

For most businesses, a service-oriented architecture offers considerable flexibility in aligning IT functions and business processes and goals. An SOA decouples reusable functions, for example, and lets an organization externalize quality-of-service (QoS) variations in declarative specifications such as WS-Policy and related standards. As a flexible, extensible architectural framework, SOA reduces cost, increases revenue, and enables rapid application delivery and integration across organizations and siloed applications. Theres a challenging downside to SOA, however, in that its significantly difficult to create an SOA solution. The architect must figure out how to produce a solution using a well-defined notation or how to organize the solution as an architectural framework with interconnected architectures and transformation capabilities. There is also the question of how to design for reusability and which tools will take the guesswork out of architecture validation and capacity planning

Service-Oriented Modeling and Architecture for Realization of an SOA

Focus of this paper is to highlight some of the key considerations in developing services in SOA environment. These are based on lessons learnt and experience gained through SOA engagements. High level view of IBMs service modeling technique known as SOMA (service oriented modeling architecture) is provided here. This technique consists of three key steps - identification, specification and realization of services, components and flows

Increasing business flexibility and SOA adoption through effective SOA governance

Most organizations understand the need to address service-oriented architecture (SOA) governance during SOA adoption. An abundance of information is available defining SOA governance: what it is and what it is not, why it is important, and why organizational change must be addressed. Increasingly business and information technology (IT) stakeholders, executive and technical, acknowledge that SOA governance is essential for realizing the benefits of SOA adoption: building more-flexible IT architectures, improving the fusion between business and IT models, and making business processes more flexible and reusable. However, what is not clear is how an organization gets started. What works and what does not work? More importantly, what is required in SOA governance for organizations to see sustained and realized benefits? This paper describes a framework, the SOA governance model, that can be used to scope and identify what is required for effective SOA governance. Based on client experiences, we describe four approaches to getting started with SOA governance, and we describe how to use these four approaches to make shared services (services used by two or more consumers), reuse, and flexibility a reality. We also discuss lessons learned in using these four approaches.

Variation-Oriented Analysis for SOA Solution Design

Many systems are built with very little foresight for incorporating changes resulting from new requirements. This paper provides a systematic way and normative guidance to analyze the variations in SOA solution design. During SOA solution design, two types of change- oriented analysis patterns, variation-oriented analysis (VOA) and event-driven change analysis (EDCA), are proposed to create a resilient design that is adaptive to changes. Specifically, a meta-data model and associated assets for solution design are introduced first to capture the information context for SOA solution design. Then a new change propagation analysis process is presented to summarize the variation identification, variation impact assessment, variation impact path identification, variation analysis and decision making. Based on these two techniques, this paper creates a set of normative guidance for the variation oriented design. These guidelines include but not limited to the artifact type, variation description, variation type, variation artifacts, and impact analysis.

A Method and Case Study of Designing Presentation Module in an SOA-based Solution Using Configurable Architectural Building Blocks (ABBs)

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) projects typically pose challenging requirements on software developers such as flexibility, speed to market, and adaptability to ever changing business requirements. In this paper, we propose a novel method of rapidly designing presentation module for an SOA-based solution using fine-grained configurable architectural building blocks (ABBs). An ABB-based presentation pattern derived from industry best practices is presented, associated with a tailored ABB configuration framework. We also introduce a formal way of modeling ABBs and their interactions. Real-life experiences of applying our ABB-based model are condensed into sixteen architectural decision points, which are further applied into a variety of SOA solution projects. Experiences accumulated over these decision points are summarized into a set of guidelines to help engineers select and configure ABBs specific to services scenarios and requirements.

Service-Oriented Order-to-Cash Solution with Business RSS Information Exchange Framework

For period of time customers have demand for more reusable and manageable service-oriented components for order-to-cash (O2C) solution so they can be easily reconfigured and managed to adapt to business changes quickly. In this paper, we present a service-oriented business process optimization model that minimizes potential revenue leakage through process improvements. We introduce service componentization approach to decompose business processes to identify reusable services in SOA solution context. We adopt Really-Simple-Syndication (RSS) technology to realize a collaborative dispute management solution based on service-oriented architecture (SOA). The proposed approach can help streamline the dispute management process with revenue increase and higher customer satisfaction

Leveraging Context Aware Services to Transform Evolving Telecom Industry Business Model

Context aware services are the next generation of the service computing paradigm. In this Industry report we explore a case study of creating context-aware services for the telecommunications industry.