SOA Modeling Patterns for Service-Oriented Discovery and Analysis

Chapter 12. SERVICE STRUCTURE CATEGORIZATION PATTERNS

The term "structure" is related to the anatomy of internal service composition or its external operating environment. When it comes to a service's internal analysis, a structure depicts the modularity of source code. This term pertains to the logical manner by which service operations are bundled and collaborate to provide a solution. Grouping operations is often referred to as source code componentization; it contributes to component reuse, nimbleness, and software elasticity. However, the external structure of the service environment provides a different perspective: It represents service deployment, integration, and configuration. This is the art of connecting the dots that describes how autonomous services are grouped or linked together to enable message exchange and execution of transactions.

This discussion brings us to the topic of structural categorization and the need to classify services by types of structures, also known as structural patterns. Why is this classification effort vital to the service discovery and analysis practice? Understanding design and architecture considerations and the manner by which service components are arranged, internally and externally, enables architects, developers, analysts, modelers, and managers to manipulate and perfect a service formation and its hosting environment. Manipulation of a service's structure refers to the modeling operations that are elaborated on in Chapters 18 through ...