The advantages of Generic Programming were outlined at 1.3.4.3
3.11.1 The Generic Nature of Services and Groups
Services designed for one organisation may be reusable in other organisations. In fact, there are sets of services common to all organisations, say basic accounting services. Other sets of services are relevant to specific industry sectors (for example, health) and for particular business types (for example, florists). At the lowest level there will be sets relevant to particular organisations (for example, McDonalds or a government department).
The idea of reuse of services is clearly evident in both the SOA and Web Service methodologies. In both cases Services provided by one organisation can be used by other organisations, persons and even other Services (that is, computer programs) that are outside the organisation. These methodologies both employ systems that facilitate interoperability between remote systems.
As with Services, Group Structures designed for one organisation may also be reusable in other organisations. Again, there will be sets of groups, particularly those
representing roles, common to all organisations; to business types, and to industry sectors.
In 3.10.2 it was evident that roles (that is, role groups) in an organisation could be recognised outside the organisation. There is no reason why this concept cannot be extrapolated to include any type of group. Recognising Groups on a global level would enable systems to interact on a global scale.
DR#34: System Interoperability
3.11.2 User Perceptions of Service and Group Concepts
This subsection deals with how users perceive the concepts of Services and Groups. User perception is important because the Model seeks to gain efficiencies by enabling untrained or minimally trained users (Clients, Workers and Managers) to perform actions whose current equivalents require IT expertise.
In relation to Clients, most internet users are familiar with the idea of finding goods and services online; this is, after all, one of the fundamental reasons for using the internet. Persons are also familiar with the idea that organisations provide services to consumers, both online and in traditional ways.
Similarly, most Workers and Managers would find it easy to understand that their work involved providing Services to Clients, their Organisation or fellow Workers. Consequently, it is not difficult to envisage that the idea that both the offering of a Service to clients and the provision of the Service work can be related to the central idea of a “Unit of Service”. In other words, persons can relate to the idea that a Service can represent a unit of organisational work.
Sociology is the prime research area which looks at groups. In fact, sociology has been defined as “the study of social groups, and how social groups influence – and are influenced by – the people who live within them” (Gallaudet University Dept of Sociology 2008). Social psychologists are also interested in the study of groups. Within sociology, “a group is usually defined as a collection of humans who share certain characteristics, interact with one another, accept expectations and obligations
as members of the group, and share a common identity” (Wikipedia 2008a). Social groups are defined as having two or more people interact and identify with one another (Bussiere 1999). Hogg (2005) speaks in terms of social categorisation in stating that “[a] core premise is that human groups are social categories … [and] … Social categorization transforms perception … to the prescriptions of a contextually relevant ingroup or outgroup prototype”.
Consequently, as the understanding of groups is fairly universal, it is not difficult to envisage that users would understand the concept of needing to belong to a Group in order to receive Services provided to the Group. In other words, persons can relate to the idea of Group membership.
With widespread understanding of both Service and Group concepts by persons, it is not a large step to enable persons to communicate with IT systems in terms of Services and Groups, as long as the Service and Group definitions are represented in a user-friendly manner.
DR#35: User-Friendly Groups & Services
3.11.3 Generic Services and Groups
Most persons are familiar with generic brands, such as those offered by supermarket chains. The major incentive for consumers to purchase these brands is that they are usually among the most affordable. While it may not be as obvious, a generic Service-based IT System is essentially an affordable “off-the-shelf” business management system that can potentially be used by any organisation.
While well-established large enterprises (organisations) may have developed their own management systems or even employed one of the large expensive generic solutions available (for example, SAP); the same is not usually true for SMEs. There are two key differences in this regard between large enterprises and SMEs. The first is that most SMEs are relatively new and often do not have established systems in place. The second is that they tend to lack expertise in IT and other management areas. A generic Service-based approach like that envisaged in the Model proposed can automate IT and management tasks. This is likely to be of benefit to many
SMEs. In particular, new SMEs with no existing systems would likely be prime candidates for such systems as the process for setting up a new business management system could itself be automated.
A generic Service-based System is affordable because its components are designed to be reused in manifold circumstances. The needs of individual organisations are met by providing an appropriate set of standard modular software components that are easily configured for the organisation’s particular needs.
DR#36: Modular IT Design