In the recent years several composition technologies have emerged, at the presentation layer with mashups, at the process layer with WS-BEPL or at the information layer with EII (enterprise information integration). Though promising, these technologies remain marginally used as part of solution architecture.

Composite Software offers a new level of granularity when compared to SaaS (Software as a Service). Composite Software is about enabling "right-sourcing", i.e. move (or keep) arbitrary small or large elements of functionality wherever it is the most cost effective to operate them, not just entire systems. Economically, "right-sourcing" is far more efficient than "outsourcing" and SaaS.

Despite the tremendous benefits of composite software, the software industry is holding back the development of a composite programming model though major pieces of the model have been realized recently. The goal of this book is start by understanding today’s software construction processes and technologies and explore why and how it should be evolved to support core composition mechanisms.

The book covers:

* Software Construction in 2007

* The Composite Information System Vision

* The impact of composition on software construction

* How SOA and Web Services technologies can be leveraged?

* A composite programming model: "wsper"

* How can we design assets to promote reuse in a composite application model?

* How can we start a composite software factory?

A free downloadable PDF version of this book is available at:

http://www.infoq.com/minibooks/composite-software-construction

Table of contents

Foreward by Boris Lublinsky

1. Introduction

2. Software Construction Best Practices in 2007

3. The Composite Information System Vision

4. So What is Changing

5. SOA and Web Services as a Key Enabler of the Composite Programming Model

6. A Composite Programming Model

7. Designing Services for Reuse

8. How do we start a composite software factory?

9. Conclusion

Index

About the Author

End notes

Jean-Jacques Dubray is a SOA Enterprise Architect in a large financial institution. He co-authored or contributed to several SOA specifications such as OASIS's ebBP, SCA, SDO, WS-TX, WS-CAF, BPML, W3C’s WS-CDL and OAGIS. Over the last ten years he has architected 3 composite application frameworks. He earned his Ph.D. from the Faculté des Sciences de Luminy in Marseilles.