Update 2005-05-03: OASIS announcement and Draft version -05 Service Oriented Architecture Reference Model document.

[February 08, 2005] A new SOA-RM TC (Service Oriented Architecture Reference Model Technical Committee) has been created by OASIS members. The goal of the TC is to "establish a Reference Model to encourage the continued growth of specific and different SOA implementations whilst preserving a common layer that can be shared and understood between those or future implementations."

The new TC is a spin-off and partial successor to the Electronic Business Service Oriented Architecture (ebSOA) TC, chartered in February 2004. Proposers of the the new TC include representatives from Adobe Systems, BAE Systems, Boeing, Booz Allen Hamilton, Cisco Systems, ECOM, Fujitsu, and Lockheed Martin.

The TC proposers believe that "Service Oriented Architecture" (SOA) as a term "is being used in an increasing number of contexts and specific technology implementations, sometimes with differing or conflicting understandings of implicit terminology and components. The proposal to establish a Reference Model is intended to encourage the continued growth of specific and different SOA implementations whilst preserving a common layer that can be shared and understood between those or future implementations."

The decision to pursue development of an SOA reference model is documented in minutes from at a November 2004 meeting of the ebSOA TC. The OASIS ebSOA TC itself was chartered to "continue work on the ebXML Technical Architecture to bring it from v1.04 to a more current architecture that takes into account both subsequent releases of the ebXML specifications and other Web Services and service-oriented architecture works including the work of the W3C Web Services Architecture WG."

Based upon work done using a SOA patterns approach, the ebSOA TC realized that the patterns for electronic business are basically the same as the patterns for other generalized information exchanges (Government, health, etc). The TC also learned "that the development of a specialized SOA for electronic business is not likely going to be successful without consensus on what service oriented architecture is. While it may be necessary to define a service oriented architecture specifically for electronic business, until a SOA reference model is established, it would not be prudent to spend time developing the more specialized electronic business SOA."

A reference model, as defined by the new SOA-RM TC, is "an abstract framework for understanding significant relationships among the entities of some environment, and for the development of consistent standards or specifications supporting that environment. A reference model is based on a small number of unifying concepts and may be used as a basis for education and explaining standards to a non-specialist." A reference model is thus "not directly tied to any standards, technologies or other concrete implementation details, but it does seek to provide a common semantics that can be used unambiguously across and between different implementations."

The goal of the new OASIS SOA-RM TC is to deliver a Service Oriented Architecture Reference Model (SOA-RM) and possibly ancillary materials. It may form subcommittees to create specialized SOA models for vertical industries or technology families. The group may also propose usage and implementation guidelines for creating specializations of the reference model, whether as a formal methodology or as best practice guidelines.

The ebSOA TC, chaired by John Hardin, continues technical work under the original charter. Duane Nickull of Adobe is the SOA-RM TC Convener and Proposed TC Chair. The first meeting of the SOA-RM TC will be held as a conference call on March 22, 2005.

From the Announcement

OASIS Service Oriented Architecture Reference Model (SOA-RM) TC

Problem to be solved: "Service Oriented Architecture" (SOA) as a term is being used in an increasing number of contexts and specific technology implementations, sometimes with differing — or worse, conflicting — understandings of implicit terminology and components. The proposal to establish a Reference Model is intended to encourage the continued growth of specific and different SOA implementations whilst preserving a common layer that can be shared and understood between those or future implementations.

Purpose: The SOA-RM TC will deliver a Service Oriented Architecture Reference Model (SOA-RM). Once the SOA-RM has been delivered, the TC may consider appropriate follow-up, including the creation of sub-committees, promotional material, liaisons or other promulgation of the TC's work, in order to promote the use of the SOA Reference Model in specific SOA implementations, in particular for vertical industries.

Definitions used in this section:

Reference Model: A reference model is an abstract framework for understanding significant relationships among the entities of some environment, and for the development of consistent standards or specifications supporting that environment. A reference model is based on a small number of unifying concepts and may be used as a basis for education and explaining standards to a non-specialist. [1] A reference model is not directly tied to any standards, technologies or other concrete implementation details, but it does seek to provide a common semantics that can be used unambiguously across and between different implementations.

Architecture: Software architecture for a system is the structure or structures of the system, which consist of elements and their externally visible properties, and the relationships among them. [2]

[1] ssdoo.gsfc.nasa.gov/nost/isoas/us04/defn.html
[2] "Documenting Software Architectures", Addison Wesley, Clements et al., pp. xxv, ISBN 0201703726

Scope of the TC's Work

The SOA-RM TC will:

• deliver a Service Oriented Architecture Reference Model (SOA-RM) and, if it elects, ancillary materials as described under "purpose" above
• allow the commission of sub-committees to create specialized SOA models for vertical industries or technology families
• propose usage and implementation guidelines for creating specializations of the reference model, whether as a formal methodology or as best practice guidelines

In no event shall this Technical Committee finalize or approve any technical specification if it believes that the use, distribution, or implementation of such specification would necessarily require the unauthorized infringement of any third party rights known to the Technical Committee, and such third party has not agreed to provide necessary license rights on perpetual, royalty-free, non-discriminatory terms.

SOA-RM TC Deliverables

1. Service Oriented Architecture Reference Model: completion date in twelve months from formation of this TC
2. Specializations of the SOA Reference Model, possibly including reference architectures, for vertical industries, technology families or other special interest groups: optional

Anticipated Audience

Anyone involved in the design, documentation or implementation of Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs) or components thereof, regardless of the standards body under which the work is sanctioned.

Language

The TC will conduct its business in English. The TC may elect to form subcommittees that produce localized documentation of the TC's work in additional languages.

Related Work

Since there are no other reference models currently being worked on in OASIS, there are no similar deliverables at the time of this submission. However, a wide variety of specifications, both within and outside of OASIS, may be of relevance as instances of or components of a specific service-oriented function or architecture. The objective of the Reference Model is precisely to provide standardized integration points between these. The work product of over half of the current OASIS TCs (each of which may offer a service, service description, advertising mechanism, service data model or service contract), as well as a large number of standards from other organizations, may serve as relevant data to inform the reference model.

However, the SOA-RM TC will not seek to choose among specifications nor populate functions. Similarly, some of the existing standards-based efforts that claim to describe an architecture or stack of service-oriented specifications (including the OASIS FWSI and ebSOA TCs, the W3C Web Services Architecture Technical Note, and other work) may serve as instances or examples that are relevant data for the creation of the reference model, but are not comparable, because the reference model will address a higher level of abstraction.

Proposers of the TC

• Kathryn Breininger, kathryn.r.breininger@boeing.com, The Boeing Company
• Peter Brown, peter@justbrown.net, Individual Member
• Ed Chase, chase@adobe.com, Adobe Systems, Inc.
• Joseph Chiusano, chiusano_joseph@bah.com, Booz Allen Hamilton
• John Hardin, john@sanghainteractive.com, Individual Member
• C. Matthew Mackenzie, mattm@adobe.com, Adobe Systems
• Hamid Ben Malek, HMalek@us.fujitsu.com, Fujitsu
• Christopher Mather, mather_christopher@bah.com, Booz Allen Hamilton
• Tim Mathews, tmathews@lmi.org, LMI
• Katsuhiro Morita, Km040481@moj.go.jp, ECOM
• Duane Nickull, dnickull@adobe.com, Adobe Systems
• Michael E. Ruiz, michael.ruiz@baesystems.com, BAE Systems NA, Inc.
• Sally St. Amand, sallystamand@yahoo.com, Individual Member
• Ron Schuldt, ron.l.schuldt@lmco.com, Lockheed Martin, Inc.
• Rajal Shah, rajalsha@cisco.com, Cisco Systems, Inc.