RE: [soa-rm-ra] Interim Editors' Draft; Action, State, RWE

Peter,

re:

Below, we try to further the debate on action, state and RWE and believe the changes proposed are critical to a coherent model. A number of people raise the general issue also about whether we want to include both general concepts and show their specializations to SOA-based systems or just stick with the latter. There seems to be a fairly strong preference for the latter and that it be a compromise between a higher abstraction level and pragmatism.

I have often argued that the ecosystem view has to be careful not to be a sociology treatise and its generalizations had to be grounded in how it applies to the use of SOA principles. That argument called for less completeness of the general and more sticking to the point. But – and this is without having looked through the latest interim draft – I also caution against making the discussion too mechanistic and too much of SOA as IT.

The problems we see with our sponsors cover both realms. For a while, the folks peddling governance “solutions” made everyone feel good by saying our SOA problems were all organizational and another governance document would make all well. The tool vendors wanted us to believe all would be well if we bought their products. Reality is a combination of both the social in modifying our perspectives and the technical in learning how to make most effective use of the tools and what we need the tools to actually do.

The ecosystem view needs to span that reality. It is a delicate balance but I think a guidepost for the understanding section 3 needs to convey.

Ken

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Dr. Kenneth Laskey

MITRE Corporation, M/S H305 phone: 703-983-7934

7515 Colshire Drive fax: 703-983-1379

McLean VA 22102-7508

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