Service Orientation and Interoperability

In this article, we will take a look at the Service Oriented Architecture principles of service orientation and interoperability. Let’s start with service orientation first. Service orientation can be thought of as a design paradigm that is used to specify the creation of automation logic in the form of services. Service orientation is applied as a strategic goal in the development of Service Oriented Architecture. Like a lot of other design paradigms, service orientation should successfully provide a means of attaining a separation of concerns.

The History of Service Orientation Principles

The definition of service orientation varies according to which Service Orientation Architecture platform is being utilized. Some vendors promote different principles over others. The fact of the matter is, however, that a lot of commonalities can be found among the different ones.

One of the first individuals to present a set of service orientation guidelines was Don Box of the Microsoft Corporation. Box’s service orientation principles were described in relation to the Microsoft Indigo, which is now known as the Windows Communication Foundation. Such principles have since evolved as the main design guidelines for Microsoft based documentation, for instance the Service Orientation and Its Role In Your Connected Systems Strategy, an article that was published on MSDN.

The first piece of researched that was published in a public forum about service orientation was by Thomas Erl of SOA Systems Inc. Erl defined eight service orientation principles that were common to all primary Service Oriented Architecture platforms. Such principles were published in the article Service Oriented Architecture: Concepts, Technology, and Design.

Then there was an article published in late 2005 called the Impact of Service Orientation at the Business Level. This article was a study on how service orientation relates to componentization as well as the IBM Component Business Model.

This was followed by an article called SOA Simplified. In this article, Sandy Carter, IBM’s Vice President for Strategy, focused on the importance of service orientation as well as its relevance to the attainment of true reuse.

Paul Allen authored a book in which Service Orientation was defined as a paradigm with three major components. These included Service Oriented Architecture, Business Architecture, and Software Oriented Management. The seven service oriented viewpoints listed by Allen include transparence, customer fit, one stop experience, partner connectivity, adaptation, optimization, and multi channel capability.

The viewpoints of course do have a more high level approach. They are not quite as specific and interlinked as Erl’s service orientation principles. Allen rather utilizes them as a starting point for asking questions during the process of design.

Service Orientation and Object Orientation

Oftentimes, service orientation gets compared to object oriented design. Most people are aware of the fact that many service orientation principles have their roots in object oriented design. Many feel that service orientation will one day replace object orientation as the primary design paradigm. Still, others feel that the two design platforms compliment one another, and thus there will always be a need for both.

Service Orientation and Service Oriented Design

The phrase “service oriented design” is typically employed in reference to the formal process where by services are design for Service Oriented Architecture. When it is used in general terms to designate an approach for the design of solution logic as services for Service Oriented Architecture, then service oriented design may be considered to be the same thing as service orientation.

Service Orientation Future

Service orientation is consistently recognized as a vital component of the service oriented computing landscape, as well as a nifty design approach to attaining service oriented architecture. It should be kept in mind that the principles of service orientation are oftentimes referred to as Service Oriented Architecture principles.

Owing to the full range of interpretations endowed upon the notion of Service Oriented Architecture, it may not always be clear what exactly is being talked about. Allan and El alike stress the aspect of service orientation as an encompassing paradigm.