Comments on: Reusable Services — the bigger the better http://blogs.gartner.com/mark_mcdonald/2009/06/19/reusable-services-the-bigger-the-better/ A Member of The Gartner Blog Network Sat, 11 Feb 2012 14:53:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: Vijay Narayanan http://blogs.gartner.com/mark_mcdonald/2009/06/19/reusable-services-the-bigger-the-better/comment-page-1/#comment-213 Vijay Narayanan Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:49:20 +0000 http://blogs.gartner.com/mark_mcdonald/?p=488#comment-213 When coarse grained services are tied to domain concepts and they perform a business activity/task they become reusable across multiple business processes. For example, if you have a CreditCheck business service that can determine the creditworthiness of a customer - it can be used with business processes that open accounts, uptier customer service level based on customer segmentation, or fraud detection. The coarse grained service could implement a federated orchestration in the background to update multiple data sources, execute business rules, or even place items on work queues for human users. Regardless of the implementation the service interface should reflect domain concepts. You can also use coarse grained services alongside BPM where your process flows can leverage services at various points for automating pieces of the process. The key advantage is that because the coarse grained service encapsulates a business function or activity it should be easier to evaluate service relevance. Instead of a coarse grained service if there were a mix of technical services, and fine grained services the evaluation exercise becomes tougher. Coarse grained services also help <a href='http://softwarereuse.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/pursue-soa-with-reuse-in-mind/' rel="nofollow">pursue reuse while executing SOA </a> initiatives and can apply to <a href='http://softwarereuse.wordpress.com/2009/05/17/reuse-services-in-multiple-business-processes/' rel="nofollow">multiple process automation solutions</a>. When coarse grained services are tied to domain concepts and they perform a business activity/task they become reusable across multiple business processes. For example, if you have a CreditCheck business service that can determine the creditworthiness of a customer – it can be used with business processes that open accounts, uptier customer service level based on customer segmentation, or fraud detection. The coarse grained service could implement a federated orchestration in the background to update multiple data sources, execute business rules, or even place items on work queues for human users. Regardless of the implementation the service interface should reflect domain concepts.

You can also use coarse grained services alongside BPM where your process flows can leverage services at various points for automating pieces of the process. The key advantage is that because the coarse grained service encapsulates a business function or activity it should be easier to evaluate service relevance. Instead of a coarse grained service if there were a mix of technical services, and fine grained services the evaluation exercise becomes tougher.

Coarse grained services also help pursue reuse while executing SOA initiatives and can apply to multiple process automation solutions.

]]> By: Mark McDonald http://blogs.gartner.com/mark_mcdonald/2009/06/19/reusable-services-the-bigger-the-better/comment-page-1/#comment-198 Mark McDonald Sat, 20 Jun 2009 22:38:34 +0000 http://blogs.gartner.com/mark_mcdonald/?p=488#comment-198 Vijay Thanks for your comments and reading the blog. The point you make is very relevant as the business knows what a price, customer, item etc is because its big enough to matter to how they work. If you can share some of your thoughts and experiences in a follow-up comment that would be great. Vijay Thanks for your comments and reading the blog. The point you make is very relevant as the business knows what a price, customer, item etc is because its big enough to matter to how they work.

If you can share some of your thoughts and experiences in a follow-up comment that would be great.

]]> By: Vijay Narayanan http://blogs.gartner.com/mark_mcdonald/2009/06/19/reusable-services-the-bigger-the-better/comment-page-1/#comment-196 Vijay Narayanan Sat, 20 Jun 2009 03:06:01 +0000 http://blogs.gartner.com/mark_mcdonald/?p=488#comment-196 Couldn't agree more. Coarse grained services are also easier to align with business concepts and capabilities. The effectiveness of SOA hinges on how well business challenges and pain points are addressed and reusable services are at the center of these objectives. In my experience, coarse grained services are simpler to understand, can be mapped to needs in automating business processes, plus significantly enhances IT-business communication. Couldn’t agree more. Coarse grained services are also easier to align with business concepts and capabilities. The effectiveness of SOA hinges on how well business challenges and pain points are addressed and reusable services are at the center of these objectives. In my experience, coarse grained services are simpler to understand, can be mapped to needs in automating business processes, plus significantly enhances IT-business communication.

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