Definitions

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

At the first telecom it was suggested that we develop some definitions.
Below is an initial set of definitions for discussion and word-smithing.
A number of these are from the "Web Services Architecture", W3C Working
Group Note, which has been downloaded to the Documents section.

Definitions:

Architecture - System architecture is the science and art of selecting
and interconnecting software and hardware components to create systems
that meet functional, performance and cost goals.

Requester or provider - Person or organization involved in an SOA
transaction

Agent (requester or provider) - Concrete piece of software or hardware
that sends or receives messages in an SOA transaction.

Service – Business process that satisfies a defined class of requests
from an external entity. The internal composition may be complex
involving multiple applications and possibly multiple companies, but the
external interface presents the solution to the requester in
understandable, machine processable business terms.

Service description - A machine-processable specification of the
service's interface. Represents a contract governing the mechanics of
interacting with a particular service

Semantics- Shared expectations about the behavior of a service.
Represents a contract governing the meaning and purpose of an
interaction. 

Discovery – Finding a service that meets the needs of the requester.

Message – A structure that is used to pass a request or a reply between
a requester agent and a provider agent.

Policy – Machine-readable assertions that requester and provider agents
must adhere to in an SOA interaction. Policies may set by the requester
or provider and may require or permit negotiation. Policies may be in
the form of permissions or obligations.

Resource – Named item that a provider possesses and a requester wants.

Don


-- 
Don Flinn
President, Flint Security LLC
Tel: 781-856-7230
Fax: 781-631-7693
e-mail: flinn@alum.mit.edu
http://flintsecurity.com