Method Engineering: A Service-Oriented Approach

Abstract

In the past, a large variety of methods have been published ranging from very generic frameworks to methods for specific information systems. Method Engineering has emerged as a research discipline for designing, constructing and adapting methods for Information Systems development. Several approaches have been proposed as paradigms in method engineering. The meta modeling approach provides means for building methods by instantiation, the component-based approach aims at supporting the development of methods by using modularization constructs such as method fragments, method chunks and method components. This chapter presents an approach (SO2M) for method engineering based on the service paradigm. We consider services as autonomous computational entities that are self-describing, self-configuring and self-adapting. They can be described, published, discovered and dynamically composed for processing a consumer’s demand (a developer’s requirement). The method service concept is proposed to capture a development process fragment for achieving a goal. Goal orientation in service specification and the principle of service dynamic composition support method construction and method adaptation to different development contexts.

Remerciements: La recherche présentée dans ce chapitre n’aurait pu être menée si je n’avais pas eu l’immense chance de rencontrer Colette. Je la remercie très sincèrement pour m’avoir acceptée au sein de son équipe de recherche et aidée tout au long de ma carrière d’enseignant-chercheur. Elle est dans toute la communauté française des chercheurs en systèmes d’information la référence pour la qualité scientifique de ses travaux, pour le rayonnement international de sa recherche et pour sa vision et ses idées novatrices sur notre domaine.