Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer program products are provided for information technology (IT) services lifecycle management. A services architecture provides a plurality of services that are capable of being ordered. A design service captures declarative specifications of services as service models. A catalog service receives the service model and combines the service models into a plurality of service offerings to provide a catalog of orderable services. An order configuration service receives an order for at least one orderable service selectable from the catalog of orderable services. An order processing service instantiates the at least one orderable service in two phases, thereby generating an instantiated ordered service. An order fulfillment service fulfills the order in accordance with the instantiated ordered service.

Abstract: An enterprise component-based software development system includes a component platform with a number of development tools and services that enable rapid and straightforward development of component-based systems. The component platform describes a middle tier architecture for a multi-tier, multi-user application. It defines the services and facilities as well as the structure in which components can execute. It helps to provide an extensible platform for the construction, management and execution of component-based software. A messaging platform facilitates communication between different computers. When a component requests a service from another component, the request is serialized and encoded into a platform-independent language such as XML. The XML-encoded message is transmitted over the Internet using an HTTP protocol to a receiving computer, which validates the message and delivers it to the component providing the requested service.