xxxv Preface 1. IntRoductIon & justIfIcatIon Service-oriented computing is a popular design methodology for large scale business computing systems. Its underpinning principle is that of modelling a business process as a re-usable service entity that can be connected to a series of other physically distributed services in order to realise a set of predetermined specifications. Interest in further researching and applying the service oriented approach has exponentially increased in the past few years with the development of the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and other competing frameworks. A significant number of companies aim to reap the benefit of cost reduc- tion by realising B2B and B2C processes on large-scale SOA-compliant software system platforms. This interest has also been compounded and further strengthened by the massive increase of e-commerce through the online selling of e-content from MP3 music and videos to services and access to specialised