SOA Modeling Patterns for Service-Oriented Discovery and Analysis

Chapter 19. STRUCTURAL GENERALIZATION ANALYSIS PROCESS AND MODELING PATTERNS

The structural generalization process introduces methods and implementation techniques that practitioners can employ to broaden a service's internal logical and physical boundaries. This broadening exercise is about increasing the service's size by widening its formation utilizing the three chief modeling operations that enable this transformation: service aggregation, unification, and compounding. Although the structural generalization analysis and modeling process is influenced by the contextual aspects of a service, the chief goal here is to focus on widening its structural boundaries. The contextual ingredients, such as types of offerings, service specialty, and service functionality, should not be the focus of the generalization venture.^[105] Furthermore, practitioners who are engaged in structural generalization activities should disregard the service type and its contribution to business or technical aspects of the solution. These service categories are semantic by nature and should not be manipulated during the structural generalization process.

The motivation behind the structural generalization process is associated mainly with business requirements and technical specifications. These are extended by the business and information technology organization because of a variety of concerns that must be addressed and rectified. Among these vital issues that are required attention are new projects that ...