Requirements engineering using the SOS paradigm

Service-providing enterprises (SPEs) employ systems composed of people, computer hardware and software, and other mechanisms to perform service actions in the customer's environment as well as to carry out internal operations as part of the SPE infrastructure. These systems are termed service-oriented systems (SOSs). The authors address the question of how to reformulate and simplify the requirements engineering process by adopting an SOS paradigm. It is shown that there are advantages to viewing many large, complex systems within the SOS paradigm. This is due to the increasingly service-oriented economy as well as the increased demands for a paradigm for integration of and interoperability between systems across multiple enterprises. The domain of SOSs is described, together with the technique by which SPE forms the context for requirements modeling and analysis. A requirements modeling framework consisting of several viewpoints and their interrelationships is outlined in order to define the SOS requirements analysis task. The context in which the defined requirements modeling task will be useful is explained.<>