Addressing Highly Dynamic Changes in Service-Oriented Systems

This chapter sets out to introduce relevant foundations concerning evolution and adaptation of service-oriented systems. It starts by sketching the historical development of software systems from monolithic and mostly static applications to highly-dynamic, service-oriented systems. Then, it provides an overview and more thorough explanation of the various kinds of changes that may need to be faced by service-oriented systems. To understand how such changes could be addressed, the chapter introduces a reference service life-cycle model which distinguishes between evolution, viz. the manual modification of the specification and implementation of the system during design-time, and (self-)adaptation, viz. the autonomous modification of a service-oriented system during operation. Based on the discussion of the key activities prescribed by that life-cycle, the chapter elaborates on the need for agility in both adaptation and evolution of service-oriented systems.