Towards Data-Driven Capability Interface

In computing, interface is the notion used for exposing the business logic of a software component for consumption. The interface of a component is deliberately defined separately from the component's implementation to define entry points, and at the same time prevent access to the component's internal resources and logic. Another advantage is that replacing the implementation of one component with another that has a same interface enables continuous consumption because how a component internally meets the requirements of the interface is irrelevant to its consumer. This paper investigates the possibilities to introduce the notion of interface in capability-oriented IS engineering. Capability Driven Development (CDD) is an example of a methodological approach for configuring dynamic, context aware, re-deployable business capabilities on top of existing enterprise information systems to enable continuous delivery of business for varying situational contexts. CDD relies on capability as the central component that integrates other elements of organizational design such as goals, KPIs, context information, processes, resources, and software services. These elements produce and use lot of different data, internal as well as external. In order to facilitate the uptake and use of capabilities, most of the necessary data should be made available for the use by the consumers of the capability. In this study, we provide an initial view on how the data interface of the capability component should be defined. The proposal is illustrated on the service concerning a regional roads maintenance. (C) 2019, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.