Gregg, In business terms the people who set up the sandwich business probably focused on sandwiches. Equally with the pizza mob and their initial objectives.
Thanks for the technical elucidation. You should definitely participate in our SOA Conference in Europe! Gervas --- In [email protected], Gregg Wonderly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Gervas Douglas wrote: > > Robin, you are in a food-conscious country, so this Pizza/Sandwich > > example resonates :). > > > > Supposing the sandwich company bought a pizza outlet down the street > > and decided to leverage its existing daytime office customer base to > > sell more pizzas. They might decide to keep the retail and production > > aspects of the business separate but integrate food delivery and > > customer relationships for both businesses. A trivial example in the > > world of enterprise apps, but it illustrates, albeit very > > simplistically, the problem faced by, say, financial services > > conglomerates who wish to present one business face to the customer > > for a variety of products and services, aspects of whose autonomy they > > still want to retain. Unless handled with an intelligent and adaptive > > architectural approach, this sort of scenario can end up as a systems > > nightmare. It is after all essentially a business issue, and being a business > > issue, it is liable to change at any moment, thereby necessitating a highly > > flexible response from IT. There is nothing original or novel in this, but at > > times it can get easily forgotten in the technical minutiae! > > The issue is whether the original system was designed to sell sandwiches, or > food products. There's a hierarchy of subclassing in the OO world where you > might have > > MonetaryTransaction > SellSomething > SellFood > SellSandwiches > SellChips > SellDrinks > BuySomething > BuyFood > BuyHoagies > BuyMeat > BuyTurkey > BuyBeef > BuyChicken > BuyCheese > BuySwissCheese > BuyCheddarCheese > BuySharpCheddarCheese > BuyMildCheddarCheese > > If the software reflects this layered approach to the various pieces of selling > sandwiches than it will be easy to plug in "SellPizzas" et.al. > > It's the notion of minimal typing that I like to use to manage this issue in my > software. Adding the specialization is the last choice I make. > > Gregg Wonderly > Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/service-orientated-architecture/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
