Re: [soa-rm-ra] The Service Interface

Folks,

 

The key here is to separate the information needed by the 
service participants (i.e., service consumer and service provider)---which are 
typically humans---from their respective software or hardware agents that 
are used to perform the interaction.  In the latter case, we're talking 
about the communication between the consumer agent and the provider agent (or 
service or, if you prefer, service agent).  [Note that for the RA, we 
have agreed that the service (or service agent) is synonymous with provider 
agent.]  For that reason, I prefer the Item 7 articulation of Service 
Interface from Ken's latest message, which of course is just one of the many 
references to Service Interface from the RM.  Unfortunately, many of 
these articulations of Service Interface in the RM are misleading, inconsistent, 
or ambiguous.

 

Clearly, the Service Description artifact and all its linkages 
are necessary for consumers---again, typically humans---to determine whether or 
not a service offering provides the capabilities and qualities of services 
it's looking for, plus policy & contract information, etc.  But the 
meta-level aspects of the Service Interface also need to be captured in some 
manner in order for the consumer to either manually develop or use 
tools to automagically generate the consumer agent at design-time in 
order for the consumer agent to communicate with the service agent at 
run-time.

 

Looking forward to a spirited discussion during the 
telecon.  In any event, we need to nail this down soon!

 

Cheers...

 

 - Jeff, JPL