A Business Service Selection Model for Automated Web Service Discovery Requirements

Automated web service (WS) discovery, i.e. discovery without human intervention, is a goal of service-oriented computing. So far it is an elusive goal. The weaknesses of UDDI and other partial solutions have been extensively discussed, but little has been articulated concerning the totality of requirements for automated web service discovery. Our work has led to the conclusion that solving automated web service discovery will not be found through solely technical thinking. We argue that the business motivation for web services must be given prominence and so have looked to processes in business for the identification, assessment and selection of business services in order to assess comprehensively the requirements for web service discovery and selection. The paper uses a generic business service selection model as a guide to analyze a comprehensive set of requirements for facilities to support automated web service discovery. The paper presents an overview of recent work on aspects of WS discovery, proposes a business service selection model, considers a range of technical issues against the business model, articulates a full set of requirements, and concludes with comments on a system to support them.