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The service-oriented modeling and architecture modeling environment (SOMA-ME) is first a framework for the model-driven design of service-oriented architecture (SOA) solutions using the service-oriented modeling and architecture (SOMA) method. In SOMA-ME, Unified Modeling Language (UML(TM)) profiles extend the UML 2.0 metamodel to domain-specific concepts. SOMA-ME is also a tool that extends the IBM Rational® Software Architect product to provide a development environment and automation features for designing SOA solutions in a systematic and model-driven fashion. Extensibility, traceability, variation-oriented design, and automatic generation of technical documentation and code artifacts are shown to be some of the properties of the SOMA-ME tool.
INTRODUCTION
Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is an information technology (IT) architectural approach that supports the creation of business processes from functional units defined as services.1,2 It has become a major focus in the emerging services computing discipline, which explores the ways in which IT can be used to develop and manage business processes efficiently.3 Helping customers implement SOA solutions, however, involves some major challenges. How do we develop an SOA solution in a way that ensures the reusability of the software artifacts developed? How do we ensure that the solution we develop is extensible? How do we develop software tools that validate an SOA solution so that we reduce the cost of maintaining it over its lifetime?
In this paper, the service-oriented modeling and architecture modeling environment (SOMA-ME) is presented as a platform for addressing the above challenges. SOMA-ME is first a framework for the model-driven design of service-oriented architecture (SOA) solutions using service-oriented modeling and architecture (SOMA) or similar methods.4,5 It is also a tool that extends the IBM Rational* Software Architect (RSA) product to provide a development environment and automation features for designing SOA solutions in a systematic and model-driven fashion.6
The SOMA-ME tool offers context-aware guidance during the SOMA-based design process, reusable SOMA design patterns, a customizable algorithm for selecting the set of services to be exposed (to be used for composing other services), support for the automated generation of technical documentation and code artifacts, and a graphical user interface (GUI) customization engine for adapting the tool to new business requirements. After the SOA solution model is strengthened by populating its variables, a validation module can be triggered to check the...