Towards a Business-Oriented Approach for Specifying Services By: Linda Terlouw ( [email_address] ) 15-06-2008

Agenda Current approaches to service specification Using the Enterprise Ontology for specifying the business task a service supports Insurance company case study

Current approaches to service specification

Using the Enterprise Ontology for specifying the

business task a service supports

Insurance company case study

Current Approaches (1/3) - UDDI Source picture: http://www.theserverside.com/tt/articles/article.tss?l=SystinetUDDI

Current Approaches (2/3) – Semantic Web Services Standards: OWL-S WSMO WSDL-S BPMO Source picture: http://www.w3.org/Submission/OWL-S/

Standards:

OWL-S

WSMO

WSDL-S

BPMO

Current Approaches (3/3) –Business Components Source picture: Ackermann, J., et al.: Standardized Specification of business components. Memorandum of the working group 5.10.3, Component Oriented Business Application Systems (2002)

Example Task Specification (Fettke & Loos) Source: Fettke, P., Loos, P.: Specification of business components. In: Aksit, M., Mezini, M., Unland, R. (eds.) NODe 2002. LNCS, vol. 2591, pp. 62–75. Springer, Heidelberg (2003) Task name Task description verify bank code this task verifies if a given bank code is valid or if a given bank code corresponds to a given bank name. look up bank code this task looks up the bank code for a given bank name. look up bank this task looks up the bank name for a given bank code.

Agenda Current approaches to service specification Using the Enterprise Ontology for specifying the business task a service supports Insurance company case study

Current approaches to service specification

Using the Enterprise Ontology for specifying the

business task a service supports

Insurance company case study

The Transaction Pattern distinguishes between Coordination and Production Acts (Dietz) Source: Jan Dietz, DEMO Professional Course

The Enterprise Ontology is only concerned with the Ontological Level (Dietz) Source: Jan Dietz, DEMO Professional Course

Template for Task Specification Type of service: <ontological (B) | infological (I) | datalogical (D)> Subtype of service: <calculation service | validation service | selection service | matching service | registration service | retrieval service...> Supported transaction: The transaction that the service supports Description of transaction: Explanation of the transaction in natural language Result of transaction: The result of the transaction that the service supports Executor of transaction: The executor of the transaction that the service supports Initiator of transaction: The initiator(s) of the transaction that the service supports Related transactions: Transaction that are one step away from the transaction that the service supports Object class: The object class that is referred to by the result type of the transaction. Related object classes: The object classes related to the previously mentioned object class.

Agenda Current approaches to service specification Using the Enterprise Ontology for specifying the business task a service supports Insurance company case study

Current approaches to service specification

Using the Enterprise Ontology for specifying the

business task a service supports

Insurance company case study

Case Study: Insurance Company Why SOA? Electronic communication with agents and reinsurers based on standards Insight into status of processes Self-service for client by using portal Enabling gradual migration to new application landscape

Why SOA?

Electronic communication with agents and reinsurers based on standards

Insight into status of processes

Self-service for client by using portal

Enabling gradual migration to new application landscape

Actor Transaction Diagram

Object Fact Diagram Source: Enterprise Ontology, Theory and Methodology, Jan Dietz

Example Specification (1/2) CalculatePremium Service Type of service: infological Subtype of service: calculation service Supported transaction: T04: policy quotation Description of transaction: offering a policy of a product to a potential policy holder Result of transaction: R04: policy pol is quoted Executor of transaction: A04: policy quotator Initiator of transaction: CA03: potential individual policy holder Related transactions: none Supported transaction: T27: policy underwriting Description of transaction: determining whether a potential individual policy holder is accepted as insured or not and on what terms Result of transaction: R27: underwriting for policy pol has been done Executor of transaction: A27: policy underwriter Initiator of transaction: A05: policy binder Related transactions: T05: policy binding, T17: reinsurance of policy

Example Specification (2/2) CalculatePremium Service Object class: POLICY Related object classes: POLICY pol belongs to POLICY COLLECTION pco the payer of INSURANCE PREMIUM pre is the insurant of POLICY pol the beneficiary of INSURANCE BENEFIT ben is the beneficiary of POLICY pol PERSON per is the beneficiary of POLICY pol PERSON per is the insured of POLICY pol PARTY par is the insurant of POLICY pol PRODUCT pro is the product of POLICY pol

Questions?

Discussion How to specify for different types of stakeholders, e.g. project managers, enterprise architects, software architect, software engineers, business process analysts etc?

How to specify for different types of stakeholders, e.g. project managers, enterprise architects, software architect, software engineers, business process analysts etc?

Backup Slides

Service? A service is a task offered by a service provider to (potential) service consumers that conforms to the following properties: it is accessible through an interface ; it is described by a service specification that provides information for the service consumer to find and use the service; its implementation is hidden to (potential) service consumers; it is autonomous , i.e. it is designed, deployed, versioned, and managed independently of other services; it supports a transaction ; it is either ontological, infological, or datalogical . Web services are one of the possible technologies to create services, but more alternatives are available! (for instance RPC/RMI, REST, CORBA, WCF) Source: Jan Dietz, DEMO Professional Course

A service is a task offered by a service provider to (potential)

service consumers that conforms to the following properties:

it is accessible through an interface ;

it is described by a service specification that provides information for the

service consumer to find and use the service;

its implementation is hidden to (potential) service consumers;

it is autonomous , i.e. it is designed, deployed, versioned, and managed independently of other services;

it supports a transaction ;

it is either ontological, infological, or datalogical .

Web services are one of the possible technologies to create services, but more alternatives are available! (for instance RPC/RMI, REST, CORBA, WCF)

Using Enterprise Ontology for defining Business Services (3/3) Source: Systems Thinking and Enterprise Ontology, lecture by Antonia Albani

Our Requirements for Specification of Task Level Nr. Requirements Consequence of not conforming r1 It is clear which business task(s) a service supports The business analyst does not know what the business value of a service is and he cannot judge whether the service fits his purpose or not. r2 Relationships between tasks are clearly described The business analyst loses overview of the total picture and searching for service can become time consuming. r3 Task are formulated in a consistent way The business analyst may not find the services that fit his purpose or may find services that not find his purpose, because he is not sure whether the task description of the service provider is consistent with his own view on the task description. r4 The tasks are stable, i.e. tasks descriptions only change when the essence of the enterprise changes The business analyst needs to deal with constantly changing task descriptions which is time consuming.

Different Views on Processes Ontological view The ontological level describes the essence of the enterprise Realization view Integration of B-, I-, and D-organization Implementation view Making operational of the organization’s realization by means of technology Orchestration view Administrative recording of production acts Execution of production acts for information-oriented products Workflow for coordination

Ontological view

The ontological level describes the essence of the enterprise

Realization view

Integration of B-, I-, and D-organization

Implementation view

Making operational of the organization’s realization by means of technology

Orchestration view

Administrative recording of production acts

Execution of production acts for information-oriented products

Workflow for coordination

Types of Services Layer Category Description of category B-service Categories are domain-specific I-service Calculation service Calculates a number using its inputs, e.g. premiumCalculation Validation service Validates whether something is true or not, e.g. customerExistValidation or customerOnBlackListValidation Selection service Select a (subset of) values from a list of values, e.g. selectReinsuredPolicies Matching service Matches certain values with each other, e.g. matchPaymentWithOutstandingAccounts … … D-service Registration service Create a new information object, e.g. registerClient Retrieval service Read an information object, e.g. retrievePolicy Alteration service Update an information object, e.g. changeBeneficiaryOfPolicy Removal service Delete an information object, e.g. removeClient Distribution service Distributes digital information from one place to another, e.g. sendPolicyToInsurer (from an agent) Virtual-to-real world service Converts information from the virtual world to the real world, e.g. printPolicy Real-to-virtual world service Converts information from the real world to the virtual world, e.g. readSensor