Service Contract

Kind: constraint

Layer: Contracts Core

Record: architecture:service-contract

Severity: mandatory

Scope: service, integration

Canonical: Ontology

A rule or precondition that a service declares its operations, their results and their side effects to every consumer.

Listed in Architecture principles, after API Contract and before Data Contract.

Requires

• API Contract
• Semantic Contract

Reinforces

• Autonomy
• Compatibility

Enables

• Independent Deployment

Conflicts with

• Hidden Service Coupling

In tension with

• Distributed Evolution

Tensions

• Service Contract / Distributed Evolution

Violated by

• Hidden Service Coupling
• Silent Breaking Changes

Refactored by

• Consumer-Driven Contract Tests
• Service Level Objectives
• Versioning

Severity

• mandatory

Category

• Contracts / Interfaces / Compatibility

Required by

• Service-Oriented Architecture

Linked from

• Contracts / Interfaces / Compatibility
• Core Modular Design
• Codebase / System Architecture Styles
• Contracts / Interfaces / Compatibility
• Core Vocabulary
• Observability / Auditability / Traceability
• Severity levels
• The resolutions