Re: [soa-rm] Public Review Comment

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

Miko

Do you want me to include this in the Public Comments Issues list or is
this something for discussion on the RM e-mail list?  I have been taking
comments from the Public Comments section for inclusion in the official
Issues List.  I will be happy to include this in the Issues List if that
is your intent.

Thanks 
Don

On Wed, 2006-03-22 at 06:26 -0800, Miko Matsumura wrote:
> Hi folks.
>  
> I have a comment on this section:
> A service is opaque in that its implementation is typically hidden from the service consumer 273
> 
> except for (1) the information and behavior models exposed through the service interface and (2) 274
> 
> the information required by service consumers to determine whether a given service is 275
> 
> appropriate for their needs. 276
> 
> I am curious about this definition because it appears to exclude in the definition of the service description any additional information used by service providers for the purpose of maintaining a service. This is just one example of a purpose and a constituency which does not appear to be sufficiently served by this definition. In my experience, services are "viewed" by a diverse set of provider and consumer constituencies which each require information about the service implementation. An example would be lifecycle management of a service from the perspective of a service provider. Or would this be viewed as a part of the implementation? In this case, substantial metadata description is needed within the implementation.
> 
> It is also referred to in an earlier section here:
> 
> In general, entities (people and organizations) offer capabilities and act as service providers. 172
> 
> Those with needs who make use of services are referred to as service consumers. The service 173
> 
> description allows prospective consumers to decide if the service is suitable for their current 174
> 
> needs and establishes whether a consumer satisfies any requirements of the service provider. 175
> 
> Services are wonderfully opaque. This is good stuff. Abstracting away the implementation is one of the benefits and provides a degree of commoditization of the implementation. Very handy. However, in practice, dealing with services requires a great deal of service description --only some of which is targeted at service consumers. 
> 
> One interpretation is that you could define, for example, someone who is a member of the provider organization, but who is managing the promotion of a service from development stage to production as a "service consumer" in that they are "making use" of the service, and modifying . But I think this definition is a little awkward
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> Miko
> 
-- 
Don Flinn
President, Flint Security LLC
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