RE: [business-transaction] ws-btm - Six into one should go!: In the mean time, lets make it less confusing for the buyer

["John Weiler" <john@ichnet.org>]

Peter,

I found your case very compelling, and wanted to suggest that since
these disparate standards efforts are confusing the market, and that
some time will come before there is convergence of standards, that the
market needs a way of understanding HOW these current standards and
products can be used TODAY so as not to delay implementation of viable
technical solutions. 

Some have achieved success, and have found the set of interoperable
solutions to meet their business needs in spite of the confusion and
competing offerings.   

The federal IT leadership, recognizing that over 72% of all major IT
programs fail due to inability to align business needs with these
emerging technologies (Federal IT market = over $56 Billion annually),
are launching a series of solution architecture initiatives to reduce
both the confusion and resulting failure rates.  

One effort that might address your specific needs is the creation of a
virtual Solution Architecture Integration Lab (S.A.I.L.), in which
standards and supporting products are defined as sets of interconnecting
"components" based on past implementation success (best practices).  We
recognize that the standards process will always be imperfect, and that
those seeking to leverage these capabilities are only seeking to
understand how to make investment decisions based on a review of
resulting "blueprints" and supporting business cases.  

This SAIL initiative is launching as a series of pilot programs to
develop a set of re-usable, interoperable solution frameworks that can
be plugged into the target architecture of major IT programs, thereby
reducing the traditional "paralysis through analysis" stage that stalls
implementation. Information on this can be found at
www.ICHnet.org/sail.htm.  

Also, there is an upcoming Solution Architecture bootcamp where members
of these diverse communities are gathering together to develop these
interoperable web services road maps on Nov. 20th in Wash DC.  Info on
this can be found at www.SecurE-Biz.net.  

Let me know if this discussion is appropriate for this list server.  If
not, please advise on where one can discuss the challenges of
architecting web services solutions.  

Cheers,

John Weiler
CTO
ICH Architecture Resource Center
+1-703-768-0400 (v)
+1-703-863-3766 (cell)
+1-703-765-9295 (fx)
www.ICHnet.org
www.SecurE-Biz.net
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Furniss, Peter [mailto:Peter.Furniss@choreology.com] 
Sent: Monday, October 20, 2003 1:41 PM
To: business-transaction@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: [business-transaction] ws-btm - Six into one should go!

Like everyone else, we've been thinking about the latest developments in
the business-transaction / web-service transaction/ service-oriented
coordiantion area, and the following is a statement of what we
(Choreology) think should happen:


We believe the increasing proliferation of specifications for web
services business transaction management - OASIS-BTP, WS-T AT, WS-T BA,
WS-TXM ACID, WS-TXM LRA, WS-TXM BP - only serves to confuse the market
and retard commercial development.

Web services are already playing a major role in interfacing
applications but they will never fulfill the promise of truly
interoperable connectivity between heterogeneous systems without a
common protocol. 

All of the existing specifications use the same fundamental two-phase
outcome principles, either explicitly or implicitly. It is Choreology's
view that they would align sufficiently to establish a common single
standard for web services transactions. The adoption of a single
standard based on the existing BTP, WS-T and WS-TXM protocols would not
only be feasible but would provide the industry with the relevant,
usable, single standard that it needs.

Why have six competing specifications for doing reliable business via
web services when one will do? You only have to look at HTTP and its
universal adoption for the World Wide Web to see the merits of one
protocol for one purpose.  

Of course, the converged standard would need further work to incorporate
some of the features that have become clear from user requirements and
which are not supported by any of the current specifications.

The BTP specification has already been implemented in five cases - by
HP, Choreology, Collaxa, Bullant and JOTM. Unlike any of the other
proposed specifications BTP has a second role to play in so far as it
provides a transactional capability for non-web services
implementations. We at Choreology firmly believe that this capability
should not be lost to the industry.


Alastair Green and Peter Furniss

(we hope to send a summary of some of the technical issues involved in
the convergence and the new features to this list before the call
tomorrow)


-----------------------------------------

   Cohesions 1.0 (TM)
   Business transaction management software for application coordination

web: http://www.choreology.com
email:  peter.furniss@choreology.com
phone:  +44 870 739 0066  <-- new, from 4 August 2003
mobile: +44 7951 536168

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