I'd like to try to clear up what I believe are a couple of misconceptions
regarding
1) IBM SanFrancisco and 2) business component reuse:
SanFrancisco is layered to allow application developers to use its
infrastructure
and common business objects separately from its domain-specific financial and
logistics frameworks. The Common Business Objects (CBO) layer of SanFrancisco
has
captured numerous cross-domain business objects representing currencies and
exchange
rate conversions, company structures, various calendars (both natural and
period-based),
number series generation, and payment calculation (including installments and
discounts),
among others. A user guide documenting these business objects can be downloaded
from http://www.software.ibm.com/ad/sanfrancisco/library.html.
Applications using SanFrancisco have been successful in achieving business
object
reuse outside of a specific domain. For example, Front Ends Incorporated
(http://www.frontends.com) has successfully built a health care application on
top of
SanFrancisco using common business objects such as NaturalCalendar, Currency,
Address,
and Company among others, even though these business objects were developed from
initial
requirements extracted from the financial and logistics domains. These business
objects
have the right attributes and behaviors to make them reusable because they were
developed
within the context of use cases defined by experienced application developers.
That said,
we took pains during development to properly isolate the common characteristics
of a
business object from its domain-specific characteristics. For example, the
SupplementaryCharge
business object introduces the capability to define charge types with various
calculation
mechanisms (e.g., fixed fee, charge based on weight or value). This business
object can
be used wherever a need to represent free-form charges occurs within an
application. The
SanFrancisco logistics framework extends this business object to incorporate it
into
various order types such as a sales order.
Business component reuse is possible, and applications built on top of
SanFrancisco are
living proof of this.
Richard Monson-Haefel wrote:
> I agree with Jim completely. Business component reuse seems to be more myth
> than reality. I can not imagine, given my project experience in several
> different domains, how an off the self business component could be reused
across
> industries or even business within the same industry. Domain models from one
> business to the next are very different, not to mention persistence
> requirements. The only exception, of course, is if the component is part of
> larger framework. IBM San Francisco is an example where there is reuse, but
in
> this case you have to purchase the whole thing including the vertical tower
> specific to your domain.
>
> How successful has MTS been in this area?
Regards,
Brent Carlson
Chief Architect
San Francisco Project -- Application Business Components
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