The Patterns for e-business layered asset model

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The Patterns for e-business approach enables architects to implement successful e-business solutions through the re-use of components and solution elements from proven, successful experiences. The Patterns approach is based on a set of layered assets that can be exploited by any existing development methodology. These layered assets are structured so that each level of detail builds on the last. These assets include:

  • Business patterns that identify the interaction between users, businesses, and data.

  • Integration patterns that tie multiple Business patterns together when a solution cannot be provided based on a single Business pattern.

  • Composite patterns that represent commonly occurring combinations of Business patterns and Integration patterns.

  • Application patterns that provide a conceptual layout describing how the application components and data within a Business pattern or Integration pattern interact.

  • Runtime patterns that define the logical middleware structure supporting an Application pattern. Runtime patterns depict the major middleware nodes, their roles, and the interfaces between these nodes.

  • Product mappings that identify proven and tested software implementations for each Runtime pattern.

  • Best-practice guidelines for design, development, deployment, and management of e-business applications.

These assets and their relationship to each other are shown in Figure A-1.

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Figure A-1: Patterns layered asset model

Patterns for e-business Web site

The Patterns Web site provides an easy way of navigating top-down through the layered Patterns' assets in order to determine the preferred reusable assets for an engagement. For easy reference to Patterns for e-business, refer to the Patterns for e-business Web site at:

http://www.ibm.com/developerWorks/patterns/

How to use the Patterns for e-business

As described in the previous section, the Patterns for e-business are structured so that each level of detail builds on the last. At the highest level are Business patterns that describe the entities involved in the e-business solution. A Business pattern describes the relationship among the users, the business organization or applications, and the data to be accessed.

Composite patterns appear in the hierarchy above the Business patterns. However, Composite patterns are made up of a number of individual Business patterns and at least one Integration pattern. In this section, we discuss how to use the layered structure of the Patterns for e-business assets.

There are four primary Business patterns, as shown in Table A-1.

Table A-1: Business patterns

Business patterns

Description

Examples

Self-Service (user-to-business)

Applications where users interact with a business via the Internet

Simple Web site applications

Information Aggregation (user-to-data)

Applications where users can extract useful information from large volumes of data, text, images, and so on

Business intelligence, knowledge management, and Web crawlers

Collaboration (user-to-user)

Applications where the Internet supports collaborative work between users

E-mail, community, chat, video conferencing, and so on

Extended Enterprise (business-to-business)

Applications that link two or more business processes across separate enterprises

EDI, supply chain management, and so on

It would be very convenient if all problems fit nicely into these four Business patterns, but in reality things can be more complicated. The patterns assume that all problems, when broken down into their most basic components, will fit more than one of these patterns. When a problem describes multiple objectives that fit into multiple Business patterns, the Patterns for e-business provide the solution in the form of Integration patterns.

Integration patterns enable us to tie together multiple Business patterns to solve a problem. The Integration patterns are shown in Table A-2.

Table A-2: Integration patterns

Integration patterns

Description

Examples

Access Integration

Integration of a number of services through a common entry point

Portals

Application Integration

Integration of multiple applications and data sources without the user directly invoking them

Message brokers and workflow managers

These Business and Integration patterns can be combined to implement installation-specific business solutions. We call this a Custom design.

We can represent the use of a Custom design to address a business problem through an iconic representation, as shown in Figure A-2.


Figure A-2: Pattern representation of a Custom design

If any of the Business or Integration patterns are not used in a Custom design, we can show that with lighter blocks. For example, Figure A-3 on page 435 shows a Custom design that does not have a mandatory Collaboration business pattern or an Extended Enterprise business pattern for a business problem.

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Figure A-3: Custom design

A Custom design may also be a Composite pattern if it recurs many times across domains with similar business problems. For example, the iconic view of a Custom design in Figure A-3 can also describe a Sell-Side Hub composite pattern.

Several common uses of Business and Integration patterns have been identified and formalized into Composite patterns, which are shown in Table A-3.

Table A-3: Composite patterns

Composite patterns

Description

Examples

Electronic Commerce

User-to-Online-Buying.

  • www.macys.com

  • www.amazon.com

Portal

Typically designed to aggregate multiple information sources and applications to provide uniform, seamless, and personalized access for its users.

  • Enterprise intranet portal providing self-service functions, such as payroll, benefits, and travel expenses

  • Collaboration providers who provide services such as e-mail or instant messaging

Account Access

Provide customers with around-the-clock account access to their account information.

  • Online brokerage trading apps

  • Telephone company account manager functions

  • Bank, credit card, and insurance company online apps

Trading Exchange

Allows buyers and sellers to trade goods and services on a public site.

  • Buyer's side: Interaction between buyer's procurement system and commerce functions of e-Marketplace

  • Seller's side: Interaction between the procurement functions of the e-Marketplace and its suppliers

Sell-Side Hub (Supplier)

The seller owns the e-Marketplace and uses it as a vehicle to sell goods and services on the Web.

www.carmax.com (car purchase)

Buy-Side Hub (Purchaser)

The buyer of the goods owns the e-Marketplace and uses it as a vehicle to leverage the buying or procurement budget in soliciting the best deals for goods and services from prospective sellers across the Web.

www.wre.org (WorldWide Retail Exchange)

The makeup of these patterns is variable in that there will be basic patterns present for each type, but the Composite can easily be extended to meet additional criteria. For more information about Composite patterns, refer to Patterns for e-business: A Strategy for Reuse by Adams, et al.

Selecting Patterns and product mapping

After the appropriate Business pattern is identified, the next step is to define the high-level logical components that make up the solution and how these components interact. This is known as the Application pattern. A Business pattern will usually have multiple Application patterns identified that describe the possible logical components and their interactions. For example, an Application pattern may have logical components that describe a presentation tier for interacting with users, a Web application tier, and a back-end application tier.

The Application pattern requires an underpinning of middleware that is expressed as one or more Runtime patterns. Runtime patterns define functional nodes that represent middleware functions that must be performed.

After a Runtime pattern has been identified, the next logical step is to determine the actual product and platform to use for each node. Patterns for e-business have product mappings that correlate to the Runtime patterns, describing actual products that have been used to build an e-business solution for this situation.

Finally, guidelines assist you in creating the application using best practices that have been identified through experience.

For more information on determining how to select each of the layered assets, refer to the Patterns for e-business Web site at:

http://www.ibm.com/developerWorks/patterns/



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End-to-End E-business Transaction Management Made Easy
End-To-End E-Business Transaction Management Made Easy
ISBN: 0738499323
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 105
Authors: IBM Redbooks

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