Service-Oriented Computing (SOC) is a new computing paradigm that utilizes services as the basic constructs to support the development of rapid, low-cost and easy composition of distributed applications even in heterogeneous environments. The promise of Service-Oriented Computing is a world of cooperating services where application components are assembled with little effort into a network of services that can be loosely coupled to create flexible dynamic business processes and agile applications that may span organizations and computing platforms. The subject of Service-Oriented Computing is vast and enormously complex, spanning many concepts and technologies that find their origins in diverse disciplines that are woven together in an intricate manner. In addition, there is a need to merge technology with an understanding of business processes and organizational structures, a combination of recognizing an enterprise's pain points and the potential solutions that can be applied to correct them. The material in research spans an immense and diverse spectrum of literature, in origin and in character. As a result research activities are very fragmented. This necessitates that a broader vision and perspective be established — one that permeates and transforms the fundamental requirements of complex applications that require the use of the Service-Oriented Computing paradigm.

This paper provides a Service Oriented Computing Roadmap and places on-going research activities and projects in the broader context of this roadmap. This research roadmap launches four pivotal, inherently related, research themes to Service-Oriented Computing: service foundations, service composition, service management and monitoring and service-oriented engineering.