Philosophy: Service vs. Project

Understanding the philosophy behind the notion & concept of “service” and “project”, and their relation to software engineering is an important factor.

Project prominently is defined as “finite endeavor with a finite completion timeline undertaken to create a unique product or service.” This definition when looked at in context of software engineering, with knowledge that the term “unique” and “finite” are really debatable because of the below facts:

• A recent study shows that almost 50% of software components are seen to be a reuse of some sort. (Unique?)
• 80% of software activities are continuous processes i.e. either support or maintenance (Finite?)

The point that some amount of uniqueness lies in every software engineering effort is acceptable, but the notion of an effort related to software being temporary is difficult to relate to because of the amount of continuity activities involved in software engineering. Evolution of the notion of “project” has developed from core engineering disciplines (Mechanical, Civil, and Electrical), defense efforts; all these discipline have one thing in common: a definite end; but software on the other hand has a vague and often undefined notion of the “end”. Another aspect which is worth noting is the key measurement principle for a project completion which is: A project is considered to be successful when it meets the scope, budget and time defined.

 

Service is defined as “Service is a (continuous/onetime) provider/client interaction that creates and captures measurable value.” This definition coincides very well with the notion of software engineering with an underlying sense of   continuity involved. Notion of service is a relatively for software engineering but is evolved from the Latin word “servitium”. All definitions of the term service do coincide with the “continuity”. Another aspect of service is that it is measurable and definitive in terms of value provided to the customer, not just once or in an audit basis but continuously and on a real time basis. Hence, measurement principle for service is more inclined towards continuous satisfaction and experience of the consumer.