Modelling variability, evolvability, and adaptability in service computing

We present a vision for future research on an emerging topic in software engineering, namely the synergy between Software Product Line Engineering (SPLE) and Service-Oriented Computing (SOC). Our aim is to develop rigorous modelling techniques and analysis and verification tools that can be used for the systematic, large-scale provision and market segmentation of "software services". We foresee flexible design techniques with which "software service line organizations" can develop novel classes of service-oriented applications that can easily be adapted to customer requirements as well as to changes in the context in which, and while, they execute. By superposing variability mechanisms on current languages for service design, based on policies and strategies defined by service providers, we envision the possibility to identify variability points that can be triggered at run time to increase adaptability and optimize the (re)use of resources.