Thoughts on Needs and Capabilities Section

[Don Flinn <flinn@alum.mit.edu>]

I have begun going over the RA chapters on the Wiki.  Paragraph 3 of the
Needs and Capabilities section raised some questions for me.

In the RM we purposely excluded details of the consumer, while in this
section we bring in the consumer as 'part' of a SOA.  

Let us assume there are two companies, one with a need, company N, and
another with a capability, company C, which satisfies that need.  Is
there one SOA encompassing the two,independent companies or does each
company construct and have its own SOA?  From an abstract point of view,
the SOA of company N is not complete until its SOA establishes an
Execution Context with C, even if that connection is only done once and
then N uses a different company C' for its next satisfaction of need,
establishing a new abstract SOA.

The consequence of this is that N must construct its SOA with the
realization that its SOA must join with the SOAs of other entities to
produce the Real World Effect required and thus complete its SOA.  This
requires that N establish the infrastructure, defined in the RM, for
completing Visibility, establishing an Interaction and Execution
Context, etc, with different entities, and with the realization that
each completion of its SOA may be ephemeral. 

I've used the concept SOA in two senses - an abstract definition which
encompasses two or more independent entities and a more concrete SOA,
which is established in each company.  The later definition is necessary
as each company designs its own architecture, independent of any other
specific entity.  Is this distinction useful as we move from the RM to
the RA, which is then to be used to design concrete architectures? 

Don

-- 
Don Flinn
President, Flint Security LLC
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