Ali Arsanjani

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

A goal-driven approach to enterprise component identification and specification

Mapping a business architecture to a component-based software architecture.

Web Services: Promises and Compromises

Much of web services’ initial promise will be realized via integration within the enterprise, either with legacy applications or new business processes that span organizational silos. Enterprises need organizational structures that support this new paradigm.

SOMA-ME: a platform for the model-driven design of SOA solutions

The service-oriented modeling and architecture modeling environment (SOMA-ME) is first a framework for the model-driven design of service-oriented architecture (SOA) solutions using the service-oriented modeling and architecture (SOMA) method. In SOMA-ME, Unified Modeling Language (UML™) profiles extend the UML 2.0 metamodel to domain-specific concepts. SOMA-ME is also a tool that extends the IBM Rational® Software Architect product to provide a development environment and automation features for designing SOA solutions in a systematic and model-driven fashion. Extensibility, traceability, variation-oriented design, and automatic generation of technical documentation and code artifacts are shown to be some of the properties of the SOMA-ME tool.

Information as a Service: Modeling and Realization

Service oriented architecture is enabling a new approach to the design and assembly of service-based solutions and environments, which promises a more fundamental alignment of business and I/T organizations in the enterprise, greater agility of applications by the exploitation of loose coupling, and opportunities for effective reuse and governance of business and I/T activities. Current methods and tools that support SOA development activities, however, have focused primarily on supporting business process and business logic. We discuss the application of SOA principles to enable the utilization of information as a service (IaaS), the benefits in unifying information and process service approaches to SOA, and key research challenges in modeling and realization for IaaS in the context of SOA development.

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

Model-driven synthesis of SOA solutions

The current approach to the design, maintenance, and governance of service-oriented architecture (SOA) solutions has focused primarily on flow-driven assembly and orchestration of reusable service components. The practical application of this approach in creating industry solutions has been limited, because flow-driven assembly and orchestration models are too rigid and static to accommodate complex, real-world business processes. Furthermore, the approach assumes a rich, easily configured library of reusable service components when in fact the development, maintenance, and governance of these libraries is difficult. An alternative approach pioneered by the IBM Research Division, model-driven business transformation (MDBT), uses a model-driven software synthesis technology to automatically generate production-quality business service components from high-level business process models. In this paper, we present the business entity life cycle analysis (BELA) technique for MDBT-based SOA solution realization and its integration into service-oriented modeling and architecture (SOMA), the end-to-end method from IBM for SOA application and solution development. BELA shifts the process-modeling paradigm from one that is centered on activities to one that is centered on entities. BELA teams process subject-matter experts with IT and data architects to identify and specify business entities and decompose business processes. Supporting synthesis tools then automatically generate the interacting business entity service components and their associated data stores and service interface definitions. We use a large-scale project as an example demonstrating the benefits of this innovation, which include an estimated 40 percent project cost reduction and an estimated 20 percent reduction in cycle time when compared with conventional SOA approaches.

The Service Integration Maturity Model: Achieving Flexibility in the Transformation to SOA

Business flexibility requires IT flexibility. IT flexibility can not occur if the old ways continue to be followed. Transformation to SOA is the way forward. SIMM has proven to be an effective means to achieve that transformation to SOA through a successive set of adoption of states of maturity that is relevant to the enterprise

A Metrics Suite for Evaluating Flexibility and Complexity in Service Oriented Architectures

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is emerging to be the predominant architectural style of choice for many organizations due to the promised agility, flexibility and resilience benefits. However, there are currently few SOA metrics designed to evaluate complexity, effort estimates and health status of SOA solutions. This paper therefore proposes a SOA metrics framework which includes both service level and SOA-wide metrics to measure design and runtime qualities of a SOA solution. The SOA-wide metrics predict the overall complexity, agility and health status of SOA solutions, while service level metrics focus on the fundamental building blocks of SOA, i.e. services. The combined views deliver a compelling suite of SOA metrics that would benefit organizations as they consider adopting SOA. These metrics, which are based on observations of many SOA engagements, are illustrated through a case study that describes a recent ongoing project at IBM where SOA was utilized to build the solution assets.