Report from Face to Face meeting in Vancouver

We decided to get down to work early on Tuesday and had a good 
discussion about the format/presentation of the final specification. 
 The general consensus of what we are doing remained constant (example 
-> high level overview, expressions by different views, set of normative 
patterns to illustrate the blueprints and speak to intended audience) 
however the presentation structure changed.  Due to the high number of 
potential patterns that may emerge from SOA, we contemplated an approach 
whereby we encapsulate the main specification in one document, then 
refer to a "Patterns Catalog" for specific patterns.  The patterns 
catalog will likely contain a multitude of patterns (perhaps as many as 
35-55 to start with) related to SOA within the context of eBusiness.

The main specification would therefore be able to be ratified and 
approved in advance of the actual catalog of patterns.

The main specification will contain multiple views and the normative SOA 
patterns metamodel.  This document was heavily revised during the 
remainder of the meeting and the Patterns Catalog document began 
emerging as well.

Patterns Catalog:

The Patterns Catalog for eBusiness SOA will likely contain a 
classification system for patterns.  So far the main division is to 
divide the patterns into two main categories - Basic SOA patterns and 
SOA patterns specialized for eBusiness.  It is likely that the latter 
will be split into several categories as well - SOA Patterns for 
eBusiness Data (things like CCTS, BIE, UDEF, CAM methodologies), SOA 
Patterns for Business processes (WS-BPEL, BPSS et al methodologies), SOA 
patterns for collaboration management (WSDL, CPP methodologies etc.) and 
potentially many more.

Great care has been taken not to subscribe to either WS*, ebXML or any 
other specific technology during this meeting and the updated documents 
will be available soon.  Some editing has to take place first.

The overarching goal is to fly investigate what SOA patterns are 
required to facilitate eBusiness on a global scale.  The resultant 
blueprints and patterns will likely be very useful for aiding businesses 
and other standards in driving specific implementations and protocols.  

Several references to other work should be included in this such as 
WS-I, W3C etc.

We should have postings by mid next week.

Duane Nickull

-- 
Senior Standards Strategist
Adobe Systems, Inc.
http://www.adobe.com