Process, policy and profile

Three separate elements are intermingled in the code of present-day applications. The emerging component-based, messaging-enabled network computing architecture enables each to be separated out:

• Process is the part of the application that performs a function. This is the only element that must always remain coded in software. The other elements are purely information.
• Policy defines when and how a process should be applied. It is the most valuable element of an application, because it is where the core business logic resides.
• Profile is where information about identity is stored. It defines the name, location, rights and roles of each entity that participates in an application.

As a simple example, consider an expense management application. An employee who wishes to file an expense report calls up the application running on a server somewhere in the network. The employee is identified by reference to a profile stored on a directory server somewhere else. The directory server validates the application as the correct one to manage this process. The application server matches the employee's profile to the appropriate policy for approval of expenses reports. It then calls up software code from another server to execute the approval and filing process.

Process on demand

This revolution will not happen overnight. It depends on the creation and agreement of standardised definitions for business processes that allow each to be fulfilled by discrete software code components. Here is a likely sequence of events.

• Internet-based applications begin to fragment into software-based component services delivered by multiple third-party providers
• Directory services providers introduce Internet-based 'digital identity' services where users, businesses and applications register their individual profiles
• The emerging dominance of a handful of XML schema such as Microsoft BizTalk provides a framework for universally accepted definitions of business objects and processes
• A new breed of Internet-based packaged software service providers offers the ability to rent ultra-componentised software processes on demand
• A future generation of application service providers allows users to design and build their own applications online in real time from prepackaged online software components