CentER

CentER is a world-class research institute that draws on the academic expertise of some of the most outstanding minds in the field of economics and business.

Center

Vasilios Andrikopoulos

Date of PhD defense: 1 October 2010
Title of thesis: A Theory and Model for the Evolution of Software Services
ISBN: 978 90 5668 262 0
Promotores: Prof.dr. M.P. Papazoglou

Abstract:
Software services are subject to constant change and variation. To control service development, a service developer needs to know why a change was made, what are its implications and whether the change is complete. Typically, service clients do not perceive the upgraded service immediately. As a consequence, service-based applications may fail on the service client side due to changes carried out during a provider service upgrade. In order to manage changes in a meaningful and effective manner service clients must therefore be considered when service changes are introduced at the service provider's side. Otherwise such changes will most certainly result in severe application disruption. Eliminating spurious results and inconsistencies that may occur due to uncontrolled changes is therefore a necessary condition for the ability of services to evolve gracefully, ensure service stability, and handle variability in their behavior. Towards this goal, this work presents a model and a theoretical framework for the compatible evolution of services based on well-founded theories and techniques from a number of disparate fields.

Full text