[MTF] Comments on the management text in the architecture document

Hi MTF folks.

Below are a couple of comments that I came up with before the last
face-to-face meeting and that I am finally getting around to sending
to the list.

The comments are against [1].

-*- What is an "agent of the Web service architecture"?

| 4.5.3.1 Managed Resources
| 
| "Managed Resources includes the agents of the Web service architecture
| (Service, Service Environment, Client, Client Environment, Service
| Description)"

and further down:

| 4.5.3.5 Manageable agents
[..]
| At this time the agents to be managed are:
|      * Service Environment
|      * Web Service
|      * Discovery Agency
|        
|    Additional managable agents may emerge as the architecture definition
|    progresses, including Client Environment, Client, Intermediary,
|    Gateway, Hosted Service, and Service Proxy.

Those examples do not all seem to fit the definition found in the
glossary:

|   agent
|          Program acting on behalf of another person, entity, or
|          process.[Web Arch]                                    

-- http://dev.w3.org/cvsweb/~checkout~/2002/ws/arch/glossary/wsa-glossary.html#agent

For example, a discovery agency could be the Web, or a file.

I am therefore wondering what an agent is, in this context.

-*- What is a manageable architecture?

| 4.5.3.5 Manageable agents
| 
| In order for the Web service architecture to be manageable, each of the
| agents of the architeture must be manageable.

I think that you will propose a definition of manageability (as
mentioned in [2]) which will answer my question.

However, it seems that the statement above is different from another
statement made:

| 4.5.3.4 Manager Role Manager Role
[..]
| The management concern is satisfied by defining the architecture necessary
| to make a Web service architecture implementation and a Web service  
| implementation manageable. This architecture must define the minimum, basic
| information, metrics, configuration, operations, events, and behaviors that
| a Web services agent must implement in order to be called a `manageable Web
| services agent'. Not all agents must be manageable. Not all Web services
| architecture implementations must be manageable. Support of this manageable
| Web services architecture by implementations of the Web services
| architeture is higly recommended, but not required.

It is unclear reading 4.5.3.4 whether all agents must be manageable to
satisfy the management concern, and whether all agents must be
manageable to get a manageable architecture. I have the feeling that
the answers are respectively "it depends on what concern" and "yes",
especially with 4.5.3.5's text for the latter, but I think that it
should be clarified.

Thank you.

Regards,

Hugo

  1. http://dev.w3.org/cvsweb/~checkout~/2002/ws/arch/wsa/wd-wsa-arch.html?rev=1.28#IDA3UWCE
  2. http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-ws-arch/2003Jan/0515.html
-- 
Hugo Haas - W3C
mailto:hugo@w3.org - http://www.w3.org/People/Hugo/

Received on Wednesday, 12 February 2003 07:27:05 UTC