Re: [soa-rm] Definition of "Service Consumer"

[Duane Nickull <dnickull@adobe.com>]

Rex:

IMO - our existing charter does well since we constrained "architecture" 
specific to the realm of software, even though we had the discussion 
that Starbucks is really also SOA.

Architecture - Software architecture for a system is the structure or 
structures of the system, which consist of elements and their externally 
visible properties, and the relationships among them.

Duane

Rex Brooks wrote:

> I think we need further discussion. I would like to see the definition 
> of service consumer, even though it is a compound term and might be 
> hyphenated in plain English "service-consumer" and created as a Class 
> in UML as "ServiceConsumer," and all first order SOA Terms, discussed 
> in the context of a definition of "IT" as the domain of SOA. So, I 
> guess what I am saying is that I think we need to chew over the 
> charter and vote on it even though, presumably, we all bought into the 
> charter as-was. By that I mean the sentence:
>
> "A reference model is not directly tied to any standards, technologies 
> or other concrete implementation details, but it does seek to provide 
> a common semantics that can be used unambiguously across and between 
> different implementations."
>
> I really do believe that SOA, in broad terms, is applicable outside 
> the realm of IT, but the term arose within it and either it should be 
> bounded by an accepted definition of "Information Technology" in 
> general and "knowledge management" in particular. Or we should define 
> our own particular context, since, as a matter of fact, when we have a 
> plumbing leak in our domiciles, we become agents seeking to consume a 
> "plumbing" service in a very literal "SOA" where the architecture is 
> the architecture of traditional scope even if we try to manage it 
> through our own efforts researching the specific field by whatever 
> means necessary, as anyone who has engaged in this exercise out of 
> necessity at some time in their lives can readily attest... the point 
> being that we need to get our "logical ducks" in a row as well as 
> other considerations such as defining our audience, working top-down, 
> bottom-up or mixing and matching methodologies.
>
> Ciao,
> Rex
>
>
>
> At 7:06 AM -0400 4/8/05, Chiusano Joseph wrote:
>
>> Please also include my suggestion of "entity (human or machine)" for
>> additional choices (I'm sure you sent this before you read my e-mail on
>> that).
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Joe
>>
>> Joseph Chiusano
>> Booz Allen Hamilton
>> Visit us online@ http://www.boozallen.com
>>  
>>
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: Gregory A. Kohring [mailto:kohring@ccrl-nece.de]
>> > Sent: Friday, April 08, 2005 2:35 AM
>> > To: soa-rm@lists.oasis-open.org
>> > Subject: Re: [soa-rm] Definition of "Service Consumer"
>> >
>> >
>> > Here is a summary of yesterdays proposals for defining the
>> > term "Service Consumer":
>> >
>> > 1) Software that invokes an instance,
>> >
>> > 2) Software that uses a service instance,
>> >
>> > 3) An agent that wishes to interact with a service,
>> >
>> > 4) An agent that interacts with a service in order to
>> >     achieve a goal,
>> >
>> > 5) An entity that binds with a service is playing the
>> >     role of service consumer,
>> >
>> > where the suggested definition of "agent" was:
>> >
>> > 1) An Agent is a software program acting on behalf of an owner.
>> >
>> > (By substituting this definition in some of the above
>> > suggestions you can come up with yet more definitions of
>> > service consumer.)
>> >
>> >
>> > Now, just out of curiosity, how do we proceed from here?
>> > Do we vote on one of the suggested definitions? (This implies
>> > we should vote on the definitions of all the terms to be used
>> > in the final document.) Or do we leave it up to the editors
>> > to pick the definition which best fits the style of writing
>> > being used within the final document?
>> >
>> >
>> > -- Greg
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > ======================================================================
>> > G.A. Kohring
>> > C&C Research Laboratories, NEC Europe Ltd.
>> > ======================================================================
>> >
>
>
>
>-- 
>  
>
> Rex Brooks
> President, CEO
> Starbourne Communications Design
> GeoAddress: 1361-A Addison
> Berkeley, CA 94702
> Tel: 510-849-2309


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