Int. J. , Vol. x, No. x, xxxx 1 Copyright © 200x Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Establishing an SOA composite applications development process for work- based learning and competency progression management Hilary Dexter, Jim Petch and Dan Powley 186 Waterloo Place, Oxford Road Manchester M13 9PL Email: hilary.dexter@manchester.ac.uk, jim.petch@manchester.ac.uk, daniel.r.powley@manchester.ac.uk Abstract: There are management issues surrounding the development process required for creation of software components that are to be implemented in applications and offered as constituents of a component or service framework. We offer ways of ensuring capability in a development team to provide services that may be assembled into multiple composite applications. We identify the following interrelated factors as necessary to the move to successful service based application development; model driven development, process capability and maturity, system requirements traceability, facilitating collaboration between domain experts and the technical implementers and process based support for the development team. The proposed development process provides a basis for development project management and for support for all the involved roles. Keywords: composite applications, service development process, competencies, structured curriculum, workplace learning Background Over the last three years the JISC-funded Horus project teams have developed a number of applications to support undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. These applications deployed the Horus component, provided to the community as an open source Web Service, to support mapping between a structured curriculum and the intended learning outcomes of learning events, allowing students to plan and manage their own learning. The service allows and encourages students to reflect on learning events that they have attended and to evaluate their quality with respect to their own learning and competence profile. Information provided by individual students is aggregated and analysed