METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF SERVICE-ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE (SOA) SOLUTIONS

• US 20090158237A1
• Filed: 12/14/2007
• Published: 06/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Zhang, Liang-Jie, Zhang, Jia
• Granted Patent: US 8,250,521 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A method is provided for designing and developing an SOA solution that comprises implementing a business process layer having a first set of architectural building blocks (ABBs) and configured to perform service composition and service decomposition; implementing a service component layer having a second set of ABBs and configured to perform service integration and service invocation; implementing a service layer having a third set of ABBs and configured to perform service discovery and service aggregation; integrating the business process layer, the service component layer, and the service layer; and specifying a set of characteristics of the first, second, and third sets of ABBs to be reconfigurable based upon extensible rules.

Claims

1. A method for designing and developing an SOA solution, the method comprising:

implementing a business process layer having a first set of architectural building blocks (ABBs) and configured to perform service composition and service decomposition;

implementing a service component layer having a second set of ABBs and configured to perform service integration and service invocation;

implementing a service layer having a third set of ABBs and configured to perform service discovery and service aggregation;

integrating the business process layer, the service component layer, and the service layer; and

specifying a set of characteristics of the first, second, and third sets of ABBs to be reconfigurable based upon extensible rules.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of characteristics includes individual ABB attributes, solution constraints, and relationships, dependencies, and interactions patterns between the first, second, and third sets of ABBs.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising integrating the business process layer, the service component layer, and the service layer with an operational system layer providing a set of service applications.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising configuring the first, second, and third sets of ABBs to implement the set of service applications as Web services.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the business process layer is implemented to perform service decomposition of business requirements into patterns of existing business processes, services, and service components, perform service composition of existing business processes, services, and service components into new business processes, and perform services-oriented collaboration control between business processes, services, and service components.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising configuring the first, second, and third sets of ABBs to categorize the set of service applications into one or more service clusters.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the service layer is implemented to provide for discovery of service interfaces for business processes in the business process layer and to provide for exposure of the service interfaces to the service component layer.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein the service component layer is implemented to provide for automated input transformation and output adaptation of the set of service applications.

9. The method of claim 3, further comprising integrating the business process layer, the service component layer, and the service layer with a consumer layer, an integration layer, a QoS layer, a data architecture layer, and a governance layer.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the third set of ABBs includes a service implementation module ABB, a method input transformation ABB, a method output adaptation ABB, a service deployment module ABB, a service publishing module ABB, a service invoker ABB, an application adaptation module ABB, and a service component repository ABB.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising implementing the service implementation module ABB interact with the consumer layer, the business process layer, and the service layer;

implementing the service invoker ABB to interact with the business process layer, the service layer, and the integration layer;

implementing the service publishing module ABB to interact with the service layer;

implementing the service deployment module ABB and the application adaptation module ABB to interact with the operational system layer;

implementing the method input transformation ABB and the method output adaptation ABB to interact with the data architecture layer; and

implementing each ABB of the third set of ABBs to interact with the governance layer.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the second set of ABBs includes a service cluster ABB, a service ABB, a services registry ABB, a service interaction manager ABB, a service binder ABB, a policy ABB, an access control ABB, a state manager ABB, a service provider ABB, a service aggregator ABB, a service consumer ABB, a service broker ABB, and an interface aggregator ABB.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising implementing the service interaction manager ABB to interact with the business process layer and the service component layer;

implementing the interface aggregator ABB to interact with the service component layer;

implementing the service cluster ABB to interact with the business process layer;

implementing the service registry ABB to interact with data architecture layer;

implementing the service binder ABB to interact with the business process layer, the consumer layer, and the integration layer;

implementing the service consumer to interact with the consumer layer;

implementing the policy ABB and the access controller ABB to interact with the QoS layer; and

implementing the state manager ABB to interact with the governance layer.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the first set of ABBs includes a process decomposition module ABB, a service composition module ABB, a process collaboration controller, a data flow ABB, a process compliance module ABB, a process repository ABB, a process service adapter ABB, an access control ABB, a configuration rule ABB, and a state management module ABB.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising implementing the control flow ABB to interact with the consumer layer, the service layer, the service component layer, the QoS layer, the data architecture layer, and the governance layer;

implementing a process service adapter ABB to interact with the consumer layer, the service layer, and the integration layer;

implementing a process compliance ABB to interact with the data architecture layer and the governance layer;

implementing an access control ABB to interact with the QoS layer;

implementing a configuration rule ABB to interact with the data architecture layer; and

implementing a state management controller ABB to interact with the governance layer.

16. A computer-usable medium having computer readable instructions stored thereon for execution by a processor to perform a method for designing and developing an SOA solution, the method comprising:

implementing a business process layer having a first set of ABBs and configured to perform service composition and service decomposition;

implementing a service component layer having a second set of ABBs and configured to perform service integration and service invocation;

implementing a service layer having a third set of ABBs and configured to perform service discovery and service aggregation;

integrating the business process layer, the service component layer, and the service layer; and

specifying a set of characteristics of the first, second, and third sets of ABBs to be reconfigurable based upon extensible rules.

17. A data processing system comprising:

a central processing unit;

a random access memory for storing data and programs for execution by the central processing unit;

a first storage level comprising a nonvolatile storage device; and

computer readable instructions stored in the random access memory for execution by central processing unit to perform a method for designing and developing an SOA solution, the method comprising;

implementing a business process layer having a first set of ABBs and configured to perform service composition and service decomposition;

implementing a service component layer having a second set of ABBs and configured to perform service integration and service invocation;

implementing a service layer having a third set of ABBs and configured to perform service discovery and service aggregation;

integrating the business process layer, the service component layer, and the service layer; and

specifying a set of characteristics of the first, second, and third sets of ABBs to be reconfigurable based upon extensible rules.