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Subject: RE: [soa-rm] Definition(s) of "service"



Just trying to sort through this; some common themes that seem to be acceptable:

A service provides capabilities.
A service is accessible. (If this is true, then service cannot be a verb.) A service has an interface. (If this is true, then a service has a boundary.)
A service interface is prescribed. (Then a service and its interface are distinct, and the interface has associated rules.  I'm not sure this is true, the interface may describe the rules, but Im not sure it has rules.  In fact, I'm inclined to suggest that the interface defines the rules for accessing the service.  Which would lead me to suggest that the service interface is more than a specification of the data model, but also of the policies associated with the service.)   
A service is a set of behaviors.  (Not sure I'm on board with this, something about behaviors doesn't sit well.)

Given this, perhaps something like:

"A service is a bounded set of capabilities that are accessible through a prescribed interface."


-- JJP

P.S. I think this definition might just be flexible enough to navigate the service offer/contract discussion also.


-----Original Message-----
From: Schuldt, Ron L [mailto:ron.l.schuldt@lmco.com] 
Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2005 12:32 PM
To: Frank McCabe; SOA-RM
Subject: RE: [soa-rm] Definition(s) of "service"


Frank,

While I believe that the previously proposed definition is sufficient, I offer the following as a compromise. Hopefully, the notion of "capabilities" addresses your issue of needing to get things done.

"A service is a set of behaviors to provide capabilities accessible via a prescribed interface."

Ron


-----Original Message-----
From: Frank McCabe [mailto:frank.mccabe@us.fujitsu.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2005 10:10 AM
To: SOA-RM
Subject: Re: [soa-rm] Definition(s) of "service"


I hesitate to spoil this party ... but I'm going to :)

1. There is a distinction between action and result. (Just ask any  
roboticist) Behaviour sounds a child misbehaving with no discernible  
effect. Computer Scientists have a tendency to focus on the purely  
technical aspects of their work: bytes shuffling around at random  
within hopefully enormous memories.
2. Also, we have to bear in mind that nobody invests millions of $s  
(or even 100's of them) in systems that contemplate their navels or  
have no business payoff. I think that we have to directly address the  
reason that services are deployed.
3. One of the movitating best practice aspects of SOAs is that  
clarity and 'separation' between the providers of services and the  
consumers of services leads to more scalable and robust architectures.

All of the above is fuzzy language; but, at the same time,  "A  
service is a set of behaviors accessible via a prescribed interface."  
sounds a lot like bureauspeak.

I believe that there is strong consensus on the following  
characteristics:
a. The concept of service is 'at the boundary' between service  
providers and consumers.
b. The service is 'there' to get things done; but doesn't itself  
denote the engine that performs the tasks.
c. There is a reason for using a service.
d. There is a lot of extra metalogical information about services  
that make it possible for third parties to develop partners for  
services.

I, for one, would prefer a strongly anglo-saxon phrasing of the  
definition of service that speaks to these points.

Frank


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