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Design of service interfaces for e-business applications using data normalization techniques

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Abstract

Web Services are being increasingly used for implementing large-scale e-business applications, but at present there is a lack of comprehensive methodologies based on sound engineering principles that can guide designers of service-oriented applications. This lack of methodological support is likely to lead to poorly designed and difficult to maintain e-business applications. In this paper we describe a design method for service-oriented applications that applies data engineering principles and the theoretical framework of data normalization to service design to produce a set of orthogonal services with normalized interfaces. We consider the impact of increasing service granularity on cohesion and coupling of service operations, and discuss associated design trade-offs. We use a travel example based on the Open Travel Alliance specification to illustrate how a document-oriented standard can be transformed into a set of well-designed service interfaces.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Software Engineering, Faculty of Information Technology, University of Technology, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    George Feuerlicht

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  1. George Feuerlicht
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Correspondence to George Feuerlicht.

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Feuerlicht, G. Design of service interfaces for e-business applications using data normalization techniques. ISeB 3, 363–376 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10257-005-0015-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10257-005-0015-4

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