Service discovery based on business processes: a practical approach using UML

As the building blocks of the future information systems, services are supposed to be a mechanism for implementing modern ecosystems of enterprises. However desired benefits of services may not acquired if they remain at the level of information systems. In other words service-oriented architecture (SOA) must be applied to all levels of an enterprise not only its information systems. As a result new architects should take some techniques in order to know which are the services that are really required to support business needs. Although there is a strong interest on the technical issues of services amongst academics and professionals, written materials about techniques and methods to discover services are relatively few. In this paper a practical approach to extract services from within business processes is provided. UML stereotyping is used as a powerful tool to show different levels of services and processes. An enterprise-wide service-oriented architecture is discussed as a promise of bridging business architectures with information systems architectures through services.