Application of the Service-Oriented Architecture at the Inter-Organizational Level

In this chapter, flexibility and adaptation of collaborative processes occurring among organizations by applying the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) at the inter-organizational level are considered. First, an in-depth rationale for a service-oriented approach to inter-organizational collaboration is presented. The need for SOA at the inter-organizational level is explained by the ubiquity of services and the economically legitimated need of organizations to collaborate to gain and retain competitive advantage. Second, two SOA-based methods are proposed: the CMEAP method supporting flexibility, and a method for adaptation of service protocols supporting process adaptation. The CMEAP method allows administrative procedures to be automatically composed in a flexible manner, based on modeling legislative provisions in a form of elementary processes, decision rules, and domain ontology. The proposed method for adaptation of service protocols allows collaborators to modify the process model ruling their collaboration at run time, taking into account their social relations. Third, two prototype systems, the PEOPA platform and the ErGo system, implementing the proposed methods for the needs of the collaborators of the construction sector are detailed. Finally, a case study illustrates how the prototype systems may support the construction processes.