Tailoring information systems: an approach based on services and service composition

In recent years, information systems tailorability has been in the centre of research as the need for constructing information systems capable of adapting to change has increased resulting from the explosion of information system complexity. Although a number of approaches and paradigms have been proposed over the years for this purpose, they have not adequately addressed all perspectives associated with tailorability, both from a quantitative, as well as a qualitative viewpoint. In this article, we demonstrate the shortcomings of these approaches and advocate that service-oriented development through the composition of services presents a promising solution to tailorability. For this purpose, we present a particular approach to service-oriented development using soft systems methodology for modelling such systems and service description diagrams for representing root definitions in the design phase of service development. We further proceed in showing why this approach naturally accommodates the requirements behind tailorability.

[1]  Cristina V. Lopes,et al.  Aspect-oriented programming , 1999, ECOOP Workshops.

[2]  Mark Lycett,et al.  Adaptive and evolutionary systems: lessons from object, component and agent approaches , 2003 .

[3]  Sharon C. Salveter.  Review of Conceptual structures: information processing in mind and machine by John F. Sowa. Addison-Wesley 1984. , 1986 .

[4]  Clemens Szyperski,et al.  Component software , 1997 .

[5]  Nandish V. Patel,et al.  Deferred system's design: countering the primacy of reflective IS development with action-based information systems , 2003 .

[6]  Ray J. Paul,et al.  Moving beyond the fixed point theorem with tailorable IS , 1995, ECIS.

[7]  Harold Ossher,et al.  Subject-oriented programming: a critique of pure objects , 1993, OOPSLA '93.

[8]  Jon Hopkins,et al.  Component primer , 2000, CACM.

[9]  Christos K. K. Loverdos,et al.  Pluggable Services for Tailorable E-content Delivery , 2002, OOIS.

[10]  Ray J. Paul,et al.  Why users cannot “get what they want” , 1993, SIGO.

[11]  Panagiotis Georgiadis,et al.  A framework for managing the lifecycle of transactional e-government services , 2003, Telematics Informatics.

[12]  Clemens A. Szyperski,et al.  Component software - beyond object-oriented programming , 2002 .

[13]  Drakoulis Martakos,et al.  Ateleological development of design-decisions-independent information systems , 2003 .

[14]  Peter Checkland,et al.  Information systems and systems thinking: time to unite? , 1988 .

[15]  Nandish V. Patel.  The logic of deferring the design process , 2003 .

[16]  Lucas D. Introna,et al.  "Systems for users, not for observers" The tailorability concept , 1998, ECIS.

[17]  Ralph Johnson,et al.  design patterns elements of reusable object oriented software , 2019 .

[18]  Antero Taivalsaari,et al.  On the notion of inheritance , 1996, CSUR.

[19]  Mike P. Papazoglou,et al.  Introduction: Service-oriented computing , 2003, CACM.

[20]  Quan Z. Sheng,et al.  SELF-SERV: A Platform for Rapid Composition of Web Services in a Peer-to-Peer Environment , 2002, VLDB.

[21]  Michael Schrefl,et al.  Extending object-oriented systems with roles , 1996, TOIS.

[22]  Peter Checkland,et al.  Soft Systems Methodology in Action , 1990 .

[23]  Peter Checkland,et al.  Systems Thinking, Systems Practice , 1981 .

[24]  Gregor Kiczales,et al.  Aspect-oriented programming , 1996, CSUR.

[25]  Friedrich Steimann,et al.  On the representation of roles in object-oriented and conceptual modelling , 2000, Data Knowl. Eng..

[26]  John F. Sowa,et al.  Conceptual Structures: Information Processing in Mind and Machine , 1983 .