Abstract
Leveraging a service-oriented paradigm would significantly affect the way people build software systems. However, to achieve this ambitious vision a solid software development methodology should be in place, comprising specific, service-context patterns as well as appropriate supporting tools which altogether integrate methods and best practices into a stable development environment. This paper presents a structured approach to analyzing software development methodologies in light of the specific features of service-oriented applications. The proposed approach is based on a critical assessment of existing software development methodologies along three methodological dimensions, namely managing change in software development, specifying the software development process and targeting the stakeholder goals. For each of this dimension we first identify suitable software methodologies capable to meet the specific challenges and then discuss their contribution towards the definition of a service-oriented development methodology.