Service Type Specifications

Over the last weeks I've been busy with finding a suitable approach towards REST Web services descriptions. Not quite there yet, but close! Here is my list of essential aspects a service type specification must address:

1. Overall purpose of the service (aka the realized business process role)


2. What client goals does the service enable (aka protocol operations)


3. When can the client expect certain goals to be available (aka partial ordering of application states)


4. What does the client have to do to 'execute' a certain goal (aka hypermedia semantics)