Describing the services communications
Interactions
Interactions enable representation of services exchanges between organizational entities.
An interaction represents a contract established in a specific context between autonomous entities that are internal or external to an enterprise. These entities can be enterprise org-units, applications, activities or processes, as well as external org-units. The content of this contract is described by an exchange contract.Exchange terms are defined by an Exchange contract assigned to the interaction.
An exchange contract is a model of a contract between organizational entities. This contract is described by exchanges between an initiator role and one or several contributor roles.You can define interactions between:
• Two components of resource architecture type to represent exchanges between these entities,
• A component of resource architecture type and an IT infrastructure to represent the terms of use of the equipment resource by the organizational resource. For example, you can represent that operator hardware use is arranged by booking.
• two components of IT infrastructure type to represent the terms of use of one IT resource by another in the context of the modeled resource architecture.
• a service point and one or more resource architecture type components to represent implementation of the service within the resource architecture,
• A component of architecture use type and a request point to represent that the entity calls a resource of an external organization.
For more details on interaction management terms, see Managing Interactions.
Service points
Services provided by infrastructure elements are represented by service points.
A service point is a point of exchange by which an agent offers a service to potential customers.The service is requested according to precise terms defined by an exchange contract assigned to the service point.
An exchange contract is a model of a contract between organizational entities. This contract is described by exchanges between an initiator role and one or several contributor roles.Resources activated to assure a service are linked to the service point by interactions. If activation of several resources is necessary, then several interactions must be created between the service point and the architecture resources.
To create a service point, see Describing Service and Request Points.
Request points
A request point is used to represent the use of an external service.
A request point is a point of exchange by which an agent requests a service from potential suppliers.The service is requested according to precise terms defined by an exchange contract assigned to the request point.
An exchange contract is a model of a contract between organizational entities. This contract is described by exchanges between an initiator role and one or several contributor roles.Resources that issue a request are linked to the request point by an interaction.
In the example, request points represent service requests made between call center operators and other organizations.
The request point creation procedure is identical to that for service points. For more details, see Describing Service and Request Points.