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  • Article
  • 03/04/2009

Composite Applications

Globalization, specialization, and outsourcing require people to work in more collaborative ways than before. This trend requires a matching change in the tools that information workers use to gain insight, collaborate, make decisions, and take action. Today, most business applications are effective at automating transactions, but do not enable rich collaboration across functional boundaries. Composite applications are an emerging class of business applications that bridge existing line-of-business systems with the people that use them. These applications enable businesses to unlock the value of their current set of back end systems (e.g. ERP, CRM and SCM systems) by deploying new cross-functional processes on top of them.

The Architecture Center for Composite Applications will provide you with reference architectures, and industry best practices for building these kinds of solutions.

Introduction

What are composite applications? What are composite applications?

Get an introduction to composite applications, and learn how to look at software assets at a more granular level. This white paper discusses decomposition of architecture into four tiers, and examines platform capabilities in terms of the containers provided to enable compositions. The white paper also covers some of the business benefits of composition that you should expect.
The 2007 Office System and other Platform Technologies for building composite applications The 2007 Office System and other Platform Technologies for building composite applications

This white paper breaks down some of the Microsoft platform technologies into a set of capabilities that are required to build composite applications. The paper also looks at some of the containers provided by each of these technologies, in which to deploy components.
Composite Applications: The New Paradigm Composite Applications: The New Paradigm

Composite applications empower business users to stitch together componentized business capabilities. In many ways, composite applications are the business users’ equivalent of Web 2.0 and “mash-ups”. While there has been much hype in this area, real value has been slow in coming. Technologies are emerging that will change this, and composition will become increasingly important in constructing business logic. This article by Chris Keyser discusses some of the fundamentals and advantages of using composite applications for today’s business challenges.
What does a composite application built on the 2007 Office System feel like for end users? (video)

Architectural Guidance

Deploying composite applications in the enterprise Deploying composite applications in the enterprise

This white paper looks at some practices and patterns for deploying composite applications on top of existing information assets within an enterprise. The paper looks at deployment as a five step process, and examines issues related to service orientation, workflow, data, identity management etc. A list of references for further reading is also provided here.
Architecting Composite Smart Clients using CAB and SCSF Architecting Composite Smart Clients using CAB and SCSF

Microsoft’s offerings for building composite smart clients include Composite UI Application Block (CAB) and the Smart Client Software Factory (SCSF) from the Patterns & Practices Group. Mario Szpuszta talks about the architectural details of CAB and SCSF and shows you how to design composite smart clients using CAB and SCSF. The examples are from an integrated bank desktop smart-client project undertaken at RACON Software GmbH, a software house of the Raiffeisen Banking Group in Upper Austria.

Industry Examples

Composite Applications in the Manufacturing Industries Composite Applications in the Manufacturing Industries

This white paper examines composition in the context of solutions for loan origination. The paper provides a technical architecture for composite applications in this space, as well as some of the enabling scenarios such as products and pricing, and loan registration.
Composite Applications in the Financial Services Industries Composite Applications in the Financial Services Industries

This white paper examines composition in the context of solutions for loan origination. The paper provides a technical architecture for composite applications in this space, as well as some of the enabling scenarios such as products and pricing, and loan registration.
Composite Applications in the Retail Industries Composite Applications in the Retail Industries

This white paper provides an overview of building composite applications to provide real time information to retailers, in order to promote collaboration and better visibility through retail dashboards.

Organizational Impact

Business Improvement Through Better Architected Software Business Improvement Through Better Architected Software

Business applications are often a barrier to change, rather than an enabler of change. Often the software is too complex, and too removed from real-world business processes, to enable enterprise agility. Composition is a way around this, but this presents new organizational challenges. Sten and Per Sundblad propose here that new architect roles are required on both the business and IT sides. Software architects must improve their business understanding, and business people must learn to better communicate to application development teams.
Quality Data Through Enterprise Information Architecture Quality Data Through Enterprise Information Architecture

Composition is a way of making the right information available to the right person at the right time. However this requires high quality data, and often this is not available. Semyon Axelrod shows that for a significant class of data issues (semantics), it is not possible to solve the “data quality problem” by just working with data. He proposes a way to deal with this problem through correct information architecture.

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