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Comment: |
I consider that this OGSA-based template is perhaps adequate for dissemination or academic papers on scientific applications, but totally UNSUITABLE and MISLEADING for software engineering of MIDDLEWARE, as I already explained in my mail on 12 July 2010 at 17:49 CET :
- It puts the focus on 'Customers', which are very specific roles, and more useful in 'for-profit business' than in 'scientific data processing',
- It puts the focus on 'Scenarios', which is a plural, whereas best practice is to describe in detail only the primary scenario,
- It puts the focus on 'Applications', whereas for Service Grids, an Application is just one of the several files given as input to an Activity,
- It puts the focus on 'Involved resources', which are internal to the system, and MUST STAY HIDDEN following the very basic OO principle of ENCAPSULATION,
- It forgets to request the definition of the SYSTEM and the description of its BOUNDARIES (INTERFACES with ACTORS), whereas such definition and description is a core issue for Distributed Data Processing,
- It forgets to request the definition of preconditions (apart security, which is mentioned only after the scenario(s) which uses the security context).
This is a critical issue, because Use Cases are used as foundation for further work.
Therefore, I have used http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_case as basis to write my own proposal, which I call 'PGI Software Engineering Use Case Template', and is available at http://forge.gridforum.org/sf/go/doc16024?nav=1
The goal of this template is professional Software Engineering, permitting technical understanding, technical criticism and technical improvement.
In particular, the focus is NOT AT ALL on the scientific applications, but on the precise definition of :
- The boundaries of the system for which the 'Use Case' captures one behavior,
- The list of actors, stakeholders, participants, roles,
- The detailed description of the primary scenario of interactions between the actors and the system, with preconditions and postconditions.
I would like that each PGI member compares the OGSA-based template with my proposal (which can be criticized and improved) in order to make his/her own mind and provide his/her own comments.
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