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03.intro.md

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1. Introduction {.page_break_before}

The Open Science realization in Europe is implementing the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). The EOSC aims at providing researchers with a unique, federated and inclusive view of fit-for-purpose services, developed and operated by the diverse European research infrastructures, including the underlying e-Infrastructures. Consequently, the ultimate success of the EOSC heavily relies on the quality aspects of those services, such as their stability or functional suitability.

The meaning of Service can be regarded from different perspectives. From an IT Service Management (ITSM) standpoint, such as the EOSC Service Management System (SMS) process model, a Service is devised as a means to "provide value to the customer". The same goal is shared by the DevOps paradigm, but in this case there is a more pragmatic vision that the customer satisfaction is achieved through the continuous delivery of quality-assured Services, with a shorter life cycle, as the final outcome of a comprehensive software development process.

The ITSM model has a broader focus. A Service is an "intangible asset" that also includes additional activities such as customer engagement and support. Consequently, it is a much heavier process that might not be appropriately applicable for all types of Services. The DevOps model, on the other hand, narrows down the scope to meet the user expectations by acting exclusively on the quality features of the Service, which is seen as an aggregate of software components in operation.

2. Purpose

This document provides an initial approach to Service Quality Assurance, meant to be applied in the integration process of the Services existing under the EOSC-Synergy project, which eventually will be accessible as part of the EOSC offerings.

The criteria compiled in this document favours a pragmatic and systematic approach, putting emphasis on the programmatic assessment of the quality conventions. As such, the criteria herein compiled builds on the DevOps culture already established in the Software Quality Assurance baseline document [@https://digital.csic.es/handle/10261/160086], to outline the set of good practices that seek the usability and reliability of Services, and meet the user expectations in terms of functional requirements.

3. Contextualization of a Service

As a result, a Service, as conceived in this document, represents the following:

  • Web Service [@https://techterms.com/definition/web_service]:

    • A Web Service is an application or data source that is accessible via a standard web protocol (HTTP or HTTPS).

    • Web Services are designed to communicate with other programs, rather than directly with users.

    • Most Web Services provide an API, or a set of functions and commands, that can be used to access the data.

  • Web Application [@https://techterms.com/definition/web_application]:

    • A Web Application or "Web App" is a software program that is delivered over the Internet and is accessed through a web browser.

  • Platform / Service Composition [@https://csrc.nist.gov/glossary/term/Service_Composition]:

    • Aggregation of multiple small services into larger services, according to a service-oriented (SOA) and/or microservices architecture.

    • An integrated set of Web Services, Web Applications and software components.

Examples are: Web portals, Scientific portals and gateways, data repositories.