Systematizing the Relationship Between Business Processes’ and Web Services’ Non-functional Requirements

Abstract

We propose in this paper a conceptual framework for the hierarchical decomposition of Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs) from the business process level to the web service level. This framework seeks to reduce the dependence on a particular IT expert’s knowledge by simplifying the dialog between the business and IT areas. The proposed framework relies on a structure of NFRs interdependence. The main reference was the ISO/IEC 25010 Product Quality Model, extended by additional software quality models and particular QoS attributes. This framework is accompanied by an extensive dictionary of non-functional requirements for both business processes and web services that can serve as a reference for researchers and industry practitioners. We assume that orchestrating web services to run business processes requires a rigorous definition of the functional requirements and NFRs of these web services. Web service NFRs are often defined as Quality of Service (QoS) attributes, which is done at the implementation level by IT teams. The definition of QoS attributes should consider the business process NFRs, since misinterpretations of web service NFRs may affect the behavior of the web services and hence achieving the business goals. The approaches proposed so far in the literature are still heavily dependent on an IT expert’s knowledge to identify the appropriate QoS attributes required to meet particular business process NFRs. However, defining appropriate QoS attributes without reference to business process-level NFRs may be a costly, time-consuming task.