Implementation of a Template-based Approach for Mass Customization of Service-oriented E-business Applications

With more and more successful implementation of e-business applications in various kinds of enterprises, business processes tend to be more standardized, the internal variations of e-business applications decrease. Meanwhile, new IT technology enables individual enterprise to demand more personalized software products to meet its specific requirements, the external varieties for e-business applications increase. This establishes the need and possibility for mass customization of e-business applications. In this paper, We propose a template-based approach for mass customization of service-oriented e-business applications. We first present the basic techniques for mass customization of software products, then we describe and categorize typical business services that are derived from various e-business systems, next we conceptualize the template-based approach by presenting the architecture of an integrated software mass customization toolkit and a Service Template Markup Language. We conclude the paper by an example showing the practicability of this approach.