Service-Oriented Computing: Next-Generation Integration of Software Systems

The inception of the Internet has greatly enhanced the modularity in distributed software systems. Either by accessing networked services, realized as web services, or by downloading and exploiting component-based software from open source repositories, consumers have a greater capability for incorporating the software modules of other entities into their own systems environment. Sometimes referred to as "enterprise integration", this area is equally applicable to the electronic commerce domain as it is for integrating government and military information systems. Our research investigates how new systems can be created, on-demand, through the discovery and composition of externally, openly-available software services. Our work tries to alleviate the potential mismatch that occurs when integrating open services into new environments. This talk discusses our contributions that deal with this problem using adaptive approaches for service discovery, composition, and evaluation. In addition, this talk will discuss the use of interaction or workflow techniques to model,analyze, and manage such systems across organizational boundaries using industry-standard software engineering methodologies.