X-Driven Methodologies for SOA System Development -- A Survey

TL;DR

This survey evaluates four X-driven development methodologies for SOA systems, analyzing their features and suitability, with business-driven development emerging as the most aligned with SOA characteristics.

Contribution

It provides a comparative assessment of general X-driven methodologies applied to SOA, highlighting their strengths and suitability for service-oriented system development.

Findings

Business-driven development best suited for SOA implementation

Model-driven development enhances productivity in SOA

Event-driven development enables quick response and asynchronous work

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate four service-oriented architecture (SOA) system software development methodologies: business-driven development, model-driven development, event-driven development, and domain-driven development. These methods, generically labelled as x-driven methodologies (XDMs), are commonly used in a general software development context, but software architects can also apply them in an SOA-based system. Each XDM typically focus on a specific aspect that drives its processes and steps. This aspect is indicated by its label. An evaluation method called qualitative screening mode is used in this study. XDMs are analysed based on their features to determine the suitability or support for service-oriented solutions. Criteria used to appraise each method are taken from SOA characteristics and SOA manifesto points. Of the four discussed XDMs, business-driven development is the best-suited approach to implement a service-oriented system shown by its conformity with the selected assessment criteria. Nevertheless, the other three XDMs have also their own strengths. Model-driven development is excellent for productivity, event-driven development is preferential for a quick response and asynchronous work, while domain-driven development is distinctive to describe problems precisely. The originality of this research is in the assessment general software development approaches of XDMs to be applied to SOA approach. The results can help developers in considering suitable methods to construct a prospective software system. Previous studies only investigate on methodologies designed intentionally for service-oriented systems.