55 Service-Oriented Architecture

Executive summary: The term “specifications by example” refers to a useful form of gathering requirements by using teams to create specific requirements of actual features. The requirements are then turned into “executable requirements” that feed into test cases and into the application itself. This is already a useful method for requirements collection. But it could evolve into something even better if two conditions are met: (1) start with pattern matching and examining the requirements from similar existing applications by means of a formal taxonomy; (2) use the formal taxonomy so that general requirements from the current application can be added to the growing library of reusable requirements for future applications. Most requirements are not truly unique but have occurred in many similar applications and will occur in many other applications in the future. The software industry needs to stop considering every application as novel and unique and recognize the essential similarities among applications in the same industries such as banking, insurance, energy, and many others.