Towards a framework for the development of adaptable service-based applications

Service-oriented computing is a promising computing paradigm which facilitates the composition of loosely coupled and adaptable service- based applications. Unfortunately, this new paradigm does not lend itself easily to traditional software engineering methods and principles due to the decentralized nature of software services. The goal of this paper is to identify a set of engineering activities that can be used to develop adaptable service- based applications. Rather than focusing on the entire service-based application development life- cycle, this paper will focus on adaptation specific processes and activities and map them to an existing high-level SBA development life-cycle. Existing software engineering literature as well as research results from service engineering research are reviewed for relevant activities. The result is an adaptation framework that can guide software engineers in developing adaptable service-based applications.