From business processes to software services and vice versa

Business processes need to be agile and flexible to help organizations stay competitive. For this purpose, SOA promises the reuse of already existing information system functionality for enabling enterprises to change the business processes more quickly. However, many promises made by SOA authors have not found their way into practice, because methodological guidance that constructively assures a more successful SOA application is still missing. In this article, service-oriented requirements engineering is therefore introduced as a discipline aiming at a better and more systematic handling and alignment of SOA and Business Process Management. Our industrial experience in this regard is also described.