Re: [soa-rm] Definition: Services

[Duane Nickull <dnickull@adobe.com>]

I do not like this definition since it assumes that all services are 
used for business processes, which is simply not true.

I liked Matt's definition from this morning or some variation of it.  We 
had one from the SOA Q&A we did and referenced it form the charter.  Not 
sure if this one still works or if it rubs folks the wrong way.

Q: What is a service?

A: A service is a contractually defined behavior provided by a component 
for use by other component(s) based on the contract.

Google had too many definitions ranging from Church services to 
implementation specific definitions.  Didn't find anything there that 
was abstract.

I tried to write another one:

Service: an externally visible behavior of a component offered for 
consumption by other components.  not happy with that.

The W3C technical note had a pretty interesting definition, albeit once 
more implementation specific to WS*:


          2.3.2.10 Service


            2.3.2.10.1 Definition

A service is an abstract resource that represents a capability of 
performing tasks that represents a coherent functionality from the point 
of view of provider entities 
<http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/NOTE-ws-arch-20040211/#provider_entity> and 
requester entities 
<http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/NOTE-ws-arch-20040211/#requester_entity>. To 
be used, a service must be realized by a concrete provider agent 
<http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/NOTE-ws-arch-20040211/#provider_agent>.


            2.3.2.10.2 Relationships to other elements

a service is a <http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/NOTE-ws-arch-20040211/#isa>

    resource <http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/NOTE-ws-arch-20040211/#resource>

a service performs

    one or more tasks
    <http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/NOTE-ws-arch-20040211/#service_task>

a service has <http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/NOTE-ws-arch-20040211/#hasa>

    a service description
    <http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/NOTE-ws-arch-20040211/#service_description>

a service has a <http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/NOTE-ws-arch-20040211/#hasa>

    service interface
    <http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/NOTE-ws-arch-20040211/#service_interface>

a service has <http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/NOTE-ws-arch-20040211/#hasa>

    service semantics
    <http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/NOTE-ws-arch-20040211/#service_semantics>

a service has <http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/NOTE-ws-arch-20040211/#hasa>






Duane

Services:

Don Flinn wrote:

>I just ran across a definition of a service in the paper "Composition
>Contracts for Service Interaction" Andrade, L. and Fiadeiro, J., which
>looks good.
>
>Slightly modified -
>Services are granular software components that can be used as building
>blocks for the assembly of business processes.
>
>Original -
>Services can be seen as granular software components that can be used as
>building blocks for distributed applications or for the assembly of
>business processes.
>
>Don
>
>  
>

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