A comparative study: Service-based application development by ordinary end users and IT professionals

Abstract

Service-Oriented Architecture enables users, both ordinary end users and IT professionals, to be part of the development cycle of interactive service-based systems in order to fulfil their desired needs. In this paper we explore and compare the mental model of two different categories of users towards the idea of "service composition by end users". Participants' responses are concluded from 5 separate focus groups, including a total of 64 participants. Results have shown that both groups of users are highly interested in the composition of service-based systems; however, privacy and security concerns and technical complexity of current approaches and service composition environments hinder the diffusion of service-based technologies among users. In this respect, this paper proposes a preliminary model of service composition uptake by end users and discusses user views and requirements to facilitate service composition. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.