Abstract
This article advocates for a complete restructuring of the Services Viewpoint and Views within the DoD Architecture Framework (DoDAF) V2.0. It introduces the concept of overloading of the term “Service” within DoDAF V2.0, and provides a means of clarifying what is meant in the DoDAF regarding Services via the introduction of the term “Commoditized Service” into the DoDAF vernacular. The Commoditized Service is a manifestation of Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) at a higher level of abstraction than Web Services; it is not in-and-of-itself a Performer – the definition of Service in DoDAF V2.0 states a Service requires a Performer [as a Mechanism] to execute. The Commoditized Service (as well as the Web Service), requires a Service Level Agreement (SLA) to declare available functionality for the Service. This article introduces the concept of the SLA as a means of „information hiding‟ for the Commoditized Service, which allows for the manifestation of three concepts: (1) Capabilities as Systems that are bought or developed outright that are internal or functionally-specific applications, with no intention of offering underlying capabilities as a Service. (2) Outsourcing Capability (or parts of a Capability) to Commoditized Services. (3) Building the Service „in house‟ with the intention of offering it as a Commoditized Service. Each has different requirements regarding development of DoDAF artifacts; each case is discussed in detail as to the artifacts required for their manifestation. Finally, the article proposes a means of management of the underlying data associated with Commoditized Services. As such, what is presented is a logical construct for accommodating and modeling Commoditized Services, Web Services, Systems, Organizations, and People, providing value added to the architect and the organizations they support.
Journal of Enterprise Architecture