proposed resolution for issue 537

[Ken Laskey <klaskey@mitre.org>]

Issue:  Point that seemed to resonate during MITRE presentation but really wasn’t made in RM: entity providing a service may not be the same as the one providing the underlying capability. 

Proposed resolution:

Suggest incorporating aspects of this point by adding a paragraph between lines 165 and 166 (paragraph ending with line 165 and the one beginning with line 166 are included for context):

SOA is a means of organizing solutions that promotes reuse, growth and interoperability. It is not itself a solution to domain problems but rather an organizing and delivery paradigm that enables one to get more value from use both of capabilities which are locally “owned” and those under the control of others.  It also enables one to express solutions in a way that makes it easier to modify or evolve the identified solution or to try alternate solutions.  SOA does not provide any domain elements of a solution that do not exist without SOA.

Note that while an SOA service brings together needs and capabilities, the provider of the underlying capability may not be the same entity that eventually provides the service which accesses that capability.  In reality, the entity with the domain expertise to create maintain, and evolve a given capability may not have the expertise or the desire to create, maintain, and evolve its service access. 

The concepts of visibility, interaction, and effect apply directly to services in the same manner as these were described for the general SOA paradigm.  Visibility is promoted through the service description which contains the information necessary to interact with the service and describes this in such terms as the service inputs, outputs, and associated semantics.  The service description also conveys what is accomplished when the service is invoked and the conditions for using the service.  

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Ken Laskey

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

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