Model-Driven service approach analysis implements a top-down approach with six major steps:
- Develop to-be business process models
- Review to-be business processes and conduct gap analysis using industry standards
- Identify integration requirements (services and information objects) in a context of business processes
- Identify application services and data model requirements
- Identify reporting and analytical requirements
- Normalize services and information objects for detail design
Business Processes
Business processes provide a collection of activities across multiple systems and applications. They are essential for identifying integration requirements (services and information objects) from the business perspective. Data flows captured in a business process often indicate integration lines. The outcomes of high-level analysis provide the business context within which integration services function.
Identifying Service and Operation Patterns
Service and operation patterns are critical to implementing these architecture principles, as they promote design quality and consistency. Identifying such patterns can help streamline business process implementation as well as minimize implementation effort to avoid duplicate work. In terms of naming and structure, the patterns are summarized at two levels, service level and operation level.
Detail Design
The detail-level of analysis and design phase employs a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches that provides the semantic understanding of the integration services design artifacts will be based. The goal of the detail design is to provide sustainable implementation artifacts in:
- Performance
- Reliability
- Reusability
- Interoperability
Normalization
Based on data flows between systems and applications, information objects can be identified with a collection of entities and properties unique to a business context. With multiple business processes, it is possible for an information object to be identified in another business process or overlapped with other information objects. Therefore, it is critical to have a normalization process that defines objects at a certain level of granularity based on business needs. The normalization process helps define a relatively accurate scope of the detail design phase with a list of common services and information objects that need to be constructed.