Sustainable IT Architecture

This book focuses on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), the basis of sustainable and more agile IT systems that are able to adapt themselves to new trends and manage processes involving a third party. The discussion is based on the public Praxeme method and features a number of examples taken from large SOA projects which were used to rewrite the information systems of an insurance company; as such, decision-makers, creators of IT systems, programmers and computer scientists, as well as those who will use these new developments, will find this a useful resource.

Autorentext

Pierre Bonnet is the co-founder of Orchestra Networks, a software editor specialized in Model-driven MDM. He is also the founder of the "Sustainable IT Architecture" and "MDM Alliance Group" communities.

Inhalt

Acknowledgements xiii

Foreword xv

Preface xxi

Guide for the Reader xxvii

Introduction to the SOA Project at SMABTP xxxi

Chapter 1. Initial Perspectives 1

1.1. 50 years of computing an overview 1

1.2. What remains today? 5

Part I. Why a Sustainable Information System? 7

Chapter 2. Company-oriented Services 9

2.1. Consequences of the Internet revolution 9

2.2. What do the leading market players say? 12

2.3. What do the chief information officers think? 14

2.4. The issues faced at general management level 14

2.5. Levels of maturity 16

Chapter 3. SOA Maturity Levels 21

3.1. Towards the creation of a more agile information system 21

3.2. Cosmetic SOA 23

3.3. Extended SOA 24

3.4. Overhaul SOA 26

3.5. The matrices of SOA maturity 28

3.5.1. The matrix showing the definitions of SOA 28

3.5.2. The matrix showing the quality criteria of SOA 29

3.5.3. The matrix showing the strengths and weaknesses of SOA 29

Chapter 4. Economic and Social Aspects 31

4.1. Removal of obstacles that may slow down the progressive overhaul of an information system 32

4.2. The future of IT specialists 33

4.3. Off-shoring 33

4.4. The generation mix 34

4.5. The role of software infrastructure editors 35

Part II. The Principles of SOA 37

Chapter 5. The Properties of SOA 39

5.1. The definition of service for users 41

5.1.1. The user of the service 42

5.1.2. A business ambiguity 42

5.1.3. An example of a business service 43

5.2. The definition of service for IT specialists 44

5.2.1. The granularity of service 44

5.2.2. The separation of concerns 46

5.2.3. The service categories 47

5.2.4. Batch services 49

5.3. The properties of basic SOA 50

5.3.1. Loose coupling 50

5.3.2. Communication by messages 51

5.3.3. Design by contract 52

5.3.4. The limits of the basic properties 56

5.4. The properties of agility 56

5.4.1. The difference between the version and the variant of a service 58

5.4.2. Agility of the data 60

5.4.3. Agility of the rules 65

5.4.4. Agility of the processes 66

5.4.5. Agility of the humancomputer interface 67

Chapter 6. Orchestration (BPM and SOA) 69

6.1. Multiple requirements in orchestration 71

6.1.1. Orchestration and SOA maturity levels 71

6.1.2. Functional requirements 73

6.1.3. Technical requirements 75

6.1.4. Enterprise architecture requirements 77

6.2. The levels of orchestration 78

6.2.1. Orchestration at the process level 79

6.2.2. Orchestration at screen level 80

6.2.3. Orchestration at the micro-process level (use cases) 81

6.2.4. Orchestration at the business service level 82

6.2.5. Orchestration between domains through the use of ESB 83

6.2.6. The orchestration of batches 83

6.3. The techniques of orchestration 85

6.3.1. The BPM engine 85

6.3.2. The business rules engine 86

6.3.3. Specific programming 86

6.4. Towards the homogenization of orchestration 87

6.4.1. Unified modeling 87

6.4.2. Unified standard 89

6.5. The benefits of orchestration 91

6.5.1. Advantages 91

6.5.2. Disadvantages 91

Part III. The Need for an Enterprise Method 93

Chapter 7. The Discovery of Services (Reference Framework and Urbanization) 95

7.1. New needs for the information system 96

7.1.1. Expansiveness and progressiveness 97

7.1.2. Mobilizing the many different competences 98 7.2...