A formal support to business and architectural design for service-oriented systems

Architectural Design Rewriting (ADR) is an approach for the design of software architectures developed within Sensoria by reconciling graph transformation and process calculi techniques. The key feature that makes ADR a suitable and expressive framework is the algebraic handling of structured graphs, which improves the support for specification, analysis and verification of service-oriented architectures and applications. We show how ADR is used as a formal ground for high-level modelling languages and approaches developed within Sensoria

A Framework for the Design of Service Maps

The concept of service-oriented architecture (SOA) is recognized as an important enabler for business transformation and application integration. Service maps emerge when individual services are (pre)configured on various architectural levels. For example, business-oriented service maps sustain the communication and coordination among participants within and between businesses. Difficulties occur when, based on different service design strategies, heterogeneous service maps are created which need to be aligned. A methodological approach to establish a systematic design process for such service maps within companies or business networks is needed

Blockchain-Oriented Services Computing in Action: Insights from a User Study

Blockchain architectures promise disruptive innovation but factually they pose many architectural restrictions to classical service-based applications and show considerable design, implementation, and operations overhead. Furthermore, the relation between such overheads and user benefits is not clear yet. To shed light on the aforementioned relations, a service-based blockchain architecture was designed and deployed as part of a field study in real-life experimentation. An observational approach was then performed to elaborate on the technology-acceptance of the service-based blockchain architecture in question. Evidence shows that the resulting architecture is, in principle, not different than other less complex equivalents; furthermore, the architectural limitations posed by the blockchain-oriented design demand a significant additional effort to be put onto even the simplest of functionalities. We conclude that further research shall be invested in clarifying further the design principles we learned as part of this study as well as any trade-offs posed by blockchain-oriented service design and operation

From i* models to service oriented architecture models

Requirements engineering and architectural design are key activities for successful development of software systems. Specifically in the service-oriented development systems there is a gap between the requirements description and architecture design and assessment. This article presents a systematic process for systematically deriving service-oriented architecture from goal-oriented models. This process allows generate candidate architectures based on i* models and helps architects to select a solution using services oriented patterns for both services and components levels. The process is exemplified by applying it in a synthesis metadata and assembly learning objects system.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Synergy in the systemic approach to architectural performance: the integral multi- and cross-layered agencies in eco-systemic generative design processes of the post-anthropocene

This article integrates a series of diverse projects that together exemplify and interpret the Systemic Approach to Architectural Performance (SAAP) that has been developed by the author. SAAP is a fusion of several process-based fields and their media, involving namely: a) ‘Systems Oriented Design’; b) ‘Performance Oriented Architecture’; 3) ‘Prototypical Urban Interventions’; d) ‘Time-Based Design’; e) ‘Service Design’; f) ‘Co-Design, Co-Creation and DIY’. The article presents SAAP’s relations to these fields and concludes with their integration and synergy in a ‘Real Life Co-Design Laboratory’ where collaborative and collective processes are seen as the resulting design objects

SOA-aware Authorization Control

The question how to handle authorization of digital identities in a service-oriented architecture (SOA) remains an open issue. In this paper we present a design pattern for the integration of legacy systems with SOA using out-of-the-box (unmodified) application servers and discuss how the architecture has to be extended by an Identity Management (IdM) infrastructure. We claim that the IdM infrastructure itself must be designed in a service-oriented way to fit into the overall SOA approach. We introduce a possibility how to decouple the policy enforcement point from the application server and propose an architectural design pattern to seamlessly integrate the SOAs business-related functionality and the IdM infrastructure. An implementation case study illustrates how to apply the invocation pattern for secured web services

Towards a Theory of Agile Dashboards for Service Oriented Organizations

Research on the agile and adaptive enterprise promotes real time dashboards as a powerful tool to provide coordination and control. Recent trends in market volatility have led firms to restructure around what organizational theorists term an “adhocracy”. Service oriented architecture represents an emerging architectural mechanism to align an organization’s processes with the flexible structure of such an organizational form. A theory of dashboard creation and implementation that addresses the organizational characteristics of an adhocracy (as exposed through the formalism of a service oriented architecture) is needed in order to develop a grounded methodology for dashboard creation and implementation that targets the coordination and control requirements of this evolving organizational structure. This research seeks to provide such a theoretical foundation grounded in the context of two diverse case studies. Cementing a theory base for dashboard creation and implementation helps to formalize the role of dashboards in service oriented organizations and provides the first step towards developing a methodology for dashboard design and use in an agile environment

Pattern-based software architecture for service-oriented software systems

Service-oriented architecture is a recent conceptual framework for service-oriented software platforms. Architectures are of great importance for the evolution of software systems. We present a modelling and transformation technique for service-centric distributed software systems. Architectural configurations, expressed through hierarchical architectural patterns, form the core of a specification and transformation technique. Patterns on different levels of abstraction form transformation invariants that structure and constrain the transformation process. We explore the role that patterns can play in architecture transformations in terms of functional properties, but also non-functional quality aspects