Service-based software: the future for flexible software

For the past 40 years, the techniques, processes and methods of software development have been dominated by supply-side issues, giving rise to a software industry oriented towards developers rather than users. To achieve the levels of functionality, flexibility and time-to-market required by users, a radical shift is required in the development of software, with a more demand-centric view, leading to software which will be delivered as a service within the framework of an open marketplace. Already, there are some signs that this approach is being adopted by industry, but in a very limited way. We summarise research and a research method which has resulted in a long-term strategic view of software engineering innovation. Based on this foundation, we describe more recent work, which has resulted in an innovative demand-side model for the future of software. We propose a service architecture in which components may be bound instantly, just at the time they are needed, and then the binding may be discarded. A major benefit of this approach is that it leads to highly flexible and agile software that should be able to meet rapidly changing business needs.