An investigation of modelling and design for software service applications

Anjum, Maria; Budgen, David

Abstract

Software services offer the opportunity to use a component-based approach for the design of applications. However, this needs a deeper understanding of how to develop service-based applications in a systematic manner, and of the set of properties that need to be included in the ‘design model’. We have used a realistic application to explore systematically how service-based designs can be created and described. We first identified the key properties of an SOA (service oriented architecture) and then undertook a single-case case study to explore its use in the development of a design for a large-scale application in energy engineering, modelling this with existing notations wherever possible. We evaluated the resulting design model using two walkthroughs with both domain and application experts. We were able to successfully develop a design model around the ten properties identified, and to describe it by adapting existing design notations. A component-based approach to designing such systems does appear to be feasible. However, it needs the assistance of a more integrated set of notations for describing the resulting design model.

Citation

Anjum, M., & Budgen, D. (2017). An investigation of modelling and design for software service applications. PLoS ONE, 12(5), Article e0176936. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0176936

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 19, 2017
• Online Publication Date: May 10, 2017
• Publication Date: May 10, 2017
• Deposit Date: Jul 5, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 5, 2017
• Journal: PLoS ONE
• Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
• Publisher: Public Library of Science
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 12
• Issue: 5
• Article Number: e0176936
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0176936
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1375671