The Quest for the Domain Expert
Compare the following quote from the EJB 1.1 specification:
The Application Assembler is a domain expert who composes applications that use enterprise Beans.
to this quote I found describing BPEL:
After the developer does the prep work, a domain expert pulls the services from a palette and connects them with lines that represent workflow.
Now, I’ve made quite a few EJB’s in my day, but I’ve never met an Application Assembler in my life. Somebody who took (existing) components and created new applications using them. Somehow, it all came down to us developers.
My burning question is: what has changed? Why would the domain expert want to compose services with BPEL/WS/SOA, when he didn’t want to with EJB?
November 1st, 2006 at 21:12
off the top of my head?
http://www.netvibes.com coghead.com And, if you get a chance, look at what is going on with MS-Sharepoint
Of course, you are right, I’ve not met this type of person either. After I get back from the Web 2.0 conference next week, I may have a different answer though!
November 1st, 2006 at 21:19
Interesting links, though I wonder if those sites were composed by domain experts.
And I know about Sharepoint; I’ve even used it as a developer. Q.E.D.
November 5th, 2006 at 16:25
It might be that BPEL as a whole is not on the right level of abstraction for Domain Experts, still the Service Oriented Architecture and standards around web-services make it possible to grow to a situation that Domain Experts could ‘compose’ a solution for their needs.
The reply grew to a size that I have posted the full reply on my blog, see: http://developerproductivity.blogspot.com/2006/11/domain-experts-what-use.html