Re: [soa-rm-ra] Disambiguating Action (Part I)

[Ken Laskey <klaskey@mitre.org>]

Yes, I would say the capability is a resource.  I would also strongly suggest we reserve the term capability for that resource that the service accesses and not introduce semantic confusion by using the term for other purposes.  One benefit of this restriction is we avoid having to distinguish between capability and functionality.  Also, I think this is consistent with the idea of capability-based acquisition, where you buy a capability that gives you desired effects.

I would go beyond what Michael says below and say the consumer is most interested in the RWEs.  In the temperature conversion example, we get the consumer's attention by the general statement (and maybe associated keywords) that says temperature conversion, but it is the RWE that the service will return temperature in degrees Centigrade rather than degrees Kelvin that is important.

Ken

On May 26, 2008, at 11:50 AM, michael.poulin@uk.fid-intl.com wrote:

Here are two questions that are in line with Danny's and Frank's messages:

1) if functionality is what is discussed and captured before service inception and capability is what is captured after service inception, then what the service consumer is interested in, first of all? Functionality or capability realized via RWE?  

- My answer is capability (what service  can provide, and only then - how). The Service Description has to answer two questions (among others): what [capability] service provides and how to use the service to get to this capability [functionality]

2) A capability in RM (and in Kens explanation) sounds like a resource. In SOA eco-systems, how a consumer might even know about a Capability/resource other than through the services? 

Since service interface does not necessary reflect the capability, the only place left is the Service Description. If Capability and service Functionality are synonyms (according to Danny), then I am fine. But in this case, Capability does not exist w/o service functionality IN SOA ( outside SOA, it is out of the observation scope). Service functionality describes accessible Capability together with particular access results  RWE.

Frank has mentioned I agree with this. But, I find it hard -- using the language of WSDL  

and RMI -- to capture the notion of business services or business functionality.  Exactly, Frank, you are not alone in this because it is impossible to capture business behaviour, business capability and functionality and, finally, business RWE in the language which does not see further than technical interface  WSDL, RMI, IDL, COM, etc.

- Michael

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