Re: [soa-rm-ra] Cogitating Descriptions for Reference Architecture and System

[Francis McCabe <frankmccabe@mac.com>]

I think that I prefer Ken's friendly amendment.
I am also beginning to wonder whether we want bring a slightly agent- 
like perspective to services:

For SOA, a system can be defined as a collection of services that  
provide access to exposed business functionality of service  
providers; and enables these capabilities to be organized and used to  
satisfy specific business needs.

The rewording is subtle, but I wanted to emphasize that there is a  
*reason* that people expose their services.

Frank


On Jul 24, 2007, at 9:20 AM, Ken Laskey wrote:

> First, I'll probably miss tomorrow's call.
>
> Second, +1 to Danny's RA definition.
>
> Third,  I'd suggest leaning a bit more on the RM for something like:
>
> For SOA, a system can be defined as a collection of services that  
> provide access to underlying capabilities, i.e. business functions,  
> and enables these capabilities to be organized and used to satisfy  
> specific business needs.
>
> Ken
>
>
> On Jul 24, 2007, at 11:43 AM, Danny Thornton wrote:
>
>> Chapter 1 of the latest RA doc is really shaping up.
>> There are two issues for this section that we may be
>> able to work through via email.
>>
>> 1) The first issue is our description of a reference
>> architecture.  Currently we state:
>>
>> "A reference architecture is an architectural design
>> pattern that indicates how an abstract set of
>> mechanisms and relationships realizes a predetermined
>> set of requirements."
>>
>> If we state the reference architecture is an
>> architectural design pattern, I would expect the
>> document to contain design patterns in a common design
>> pattern format.  Also, I would associate "realizes" as
>> it is used in the sentence with SOA implementation.
>> The following is an alternative description for a
>> reference architecture:
>>
>> A reference archicture is a design template that
>> indicates how an abstract set of mechanisms and
>> relationships may realize a predetermined set of goals
>> and requirements.
>>
>> 2) The second issue is that we use the ANSI IEEE
>> 1471-2000 definition for system:
>>
>> "A collection of components organized to accomplish a
>> specific function or set of functions."
>>
>> I suggest dropping this direct quote from IEEE 1471
>> and stating something more appropriate for an SOA
>> ecosystem.  For example,
>>
>> For SOA, a system can be defined as a collection of
>> services and components organized to accomplish
>> specific goals and requirements.
>>
>> Other than these two issues, chapter one is a good
>> read and resonates with me.
>>
>> Danny
>>
>>
>>
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>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> --------------------
> Ken Laskey
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