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Posts on the
Design Decomposition Blog
Iridium Satellite Collision in Space
You might have seen the recent news reports about the collision between U.S. and Russian communication satellites. The U.S. satellite was one of the Iridium satellites. What wasn’t reported and you probably don’t know is that an object database management system (ODBMS) is an important part of the Iridium system. Even though ODBMSs are a [...]
February 13, 2009
(The Acronym) SOA is (Perhaps) Dead (at Some Companies); Long Live Services
I am now also posting on the Cutter Blog. My initial posting is (The Acronym) SOA is (Perhaps) Dead (at Some Companies); Long Live Services. It is a response to Anne Thomas Manes’ SOA is Dead; Long Live Services on her blog at the Burton Group.
January 9, 2009
Atomicity
The typical definition of an atomic task or process is one that cannot be decomposed further. This is vague and subject to interpretation. The Decomposition Matrix on this site uses a specific definition: A task (for business process diagrams) or a process (for data flow diagrams) is atomic if every input relates to every output [...]
December 3, 2008
Well-Formed Business Process Diagrams
My last posting referenced the criteria for a well-formed business process diagram mentioned in Business Process Driven SOA using BPMN and BPEL by Matjaz B. Juric and Kapil Pant. I am going to expand on their criteria to create a more comprehensive definition of a well-formed business process diagram. To start, here are three criteria from [...]
November 18, 2008
Recent Business Process Modeling Books
I recently received two new books on business process modeling. Both books looked interesting because they had great titles. As it turns out, one book is great and the other not so good. The not so good book is Business Process Driven SOA using BPMN and BPEL by Matjaz B. Juric and Kapil Pant. There are [...]
October 9, 2008
The Design Decomposition Blog
is written by Doug Barry.
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A service-oriented architecture is essentially a collection of services. These services communicate with each other. The communication can involve either simple data passing or it could involve two or more services coordinating some activity. Some means of connecting services to each other is needed.

Service-oriented architectures are not a new thing. The first service-oriented architecture for many people in the past was with the use DCOM or Object Request Brokers (ORBs) based on the CORBA specification. For more on DCOM and CORBA, see Prior service-oriented architectures (new window).

Services

If a service-oriented architecture is to be effective, we need a clear understanding of the term service. A service is a function that is well-defined, self-contained, and does not depend on the context or state of other services. See Service (new window).

Connections

The technology of Web services (new window) is the most likely connection technology of service-oriented architectures. Web services essentially use XML (new window) to create a robust connection.

The following figure illustrates a basic service-oriented architecture. It shows a service consumer at the right sending a service request message to a service provider at the left. The service provider returns a response message to the service consumer. The request and subsequent response connections are defined in some way that is understandable to both the service consumer and service provider. How those connections are defined is explained in Web Services explained (new window). A service provider can also be a service consumer.

Service-oriented architecture

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Also see Web Services definition and Web Services explained.

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Related books at Amazon.com

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA): Concepts, Technology, and Design
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA): Concepts, Technology, and Design
by Thomas Erl
Average Customer Review: 4 stars based on 59 reviews.
Customer Review: Thomas Erl in this book provides an excellent reference and an independent/agnostic view of SOA that is not cluttered with Vendor speak. What I thought was valuable is the definition of business benefits, case studies and the beginning of SOA Principals and terminology that provides an organization a mechanism to organize their effo...
Applied SOA: Service-Oriented Architecture and Design Strategies
Applied SOA: Service-Oriented Architecture and Design Strategies
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Average Customer Review: 4 stars based on 9 reviews.
Customer Review: I have not seen a SOA book that is as practical as this one. Most of the people I work with understand why SOA is important, and we all get the vision by now. Many of the other popular SOA books ONLY focus on the vision and "what is SOA?" but not much else. This book is different. It provides details. It focuses on architecture, desi...
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) For Dummies, 2nd Edition
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) For Dummies, 2nd Edition
by Judith Hurwitz, Robin Bloor, Marcia Kaufman, Fern Halper
Average Customer Review: 2 stars based on 7 reviews.
Customer Review: I've always hated the "for Dummies" series -- while I never doubted its application to me (at least in some areas), I didn't think I should display my stupidity nakedly with a long line of yellow book spines! That said, the real difficulty with the series naming convention is it doesn't allow one to level-set purchases. Are the (IT-f...
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