Rules for services  

One question I have been asked every time I talk about SOA and services is: "How do I build good services?" My initial answer has been to use the description of the service as a pivot point among the technology side and the business side. If a service does not make sense in a business context then it is not a good service. While this is valid there is a need to extend the definition. The following ten items are guidelines for what makes a good service - I am very interested in feedback as this is a real problem in moving SOA forward.

1. Services are intended to be shared


2. Services have a clear purpose


3. Services are loosely orchestrated and use other services whenever possible for common tasks


4. Services are discoverable and support introspection


5. Services plug into a SOA


6. Services share and play with others well


7. Services have well defined interfaces and polices


8. Services accept well defined input and deliver well defined output


9. Services do not have hidden side affects


10. Services are interfaces to or from processes

posted by John McDowall | 10:02 PM