Method and apparatus for enabling agile development of services in cloud computing and traditional environments

1. A method of providing flexibility at the attribute level of a software object in custom software developed using an existing or specially developed software object where the type of attribute can be set to a name and each name can be associated with an optional name object, said method comprising steps of

associating a type attribute specifying a name to an attribute of a software object, or

prepending a name object specifying a name to said existing or specially developed software object setting a type of attribute of said existing or specially developed software object, and

prepending a value object specifying a value to said existing or specially developed software object, whereby said name specified by said type attribute or said name object and said value of said value object form a name value pattern that is inherited by said existing or specially developed software object to function as an additional attribute of said existing or specially developed software object without adding an additional attribute to said existing or specially developed software object to facilitate re-use and maintain compatibility of said existing or specially developed object with other objects.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , including a further step of

prepending a name object specifying a name to said software object.

3. The method as recited in claim 2 , including a further step of

editing a generic name object.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 , including a further step of

providing additional details of attributes through comma separated values.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 , including a further step of

editing a type name of an attribute.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 , including a further step of

editing a generic value object.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 , including a further step of

editing attributes of said software object.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 , including a further step of

storing said software object with said name object and value object prepended to said software object as a portion of a software program.

9. The method as recited in claim 1 , including further steps of

prepending another name object to said software object, wherein said another name object is of the same type or class as said name object, and

prepending another value object to said software object, wherein said another value object is of a same type or class as said value object whereby another name value pattern is inherited by said software object.

10. The method as recited in claim 9 , wherein said another name object and said another value object are associated with an attribute of said software object that is different from an attribute with which said name object and said value object are associated.

11. An attribute buoyant enabler apparatus implemented on at least one processor, said attribute enabler object comprising

an editor to select and edit an existing or specially developed software object,

a display to displaying attributes of said an existing or specially developed software object, and

an input device to prepend an optional name object and a value object to said an existing or specially developed software object, whereby a name value pattern is inherited by said an existing or specially developed software object whereby additional functionality or attributes are inherited by said existing or specially developed software object without altering attributes of said existing or specially developed software object to facilitate re-use and maintain compatibility with other software objects.

12. The attribute buoyant enabler as recited in claim 11 , wherein said name value pattern is associated with a particular attribute of said software object.

13. The attribute buoyant enabler as recited in claim 11 , wherein said editor provides for editing of a generic name object and a generic value object.

14. The attribute buoyant enabler as recited in claim 11 , further including a memory for storing said software object together with said name object and said value object as a portion of a software program.

15. The attribute buoyant enabler as recited in claim 11 , wherein said input device further provides prepending of another name object and another value object to said software object, whereby another name value pattern is inherited by said software object.

16. The buoyant enabler as recited in claim 15 , wherein said another name value pattern is associated with a particular attribute of said software object that is different from an attribute with which said name value pattern is associated.

17. The attribute buoyant enabler as recited in claim 11 , further including a memory portion for storing a model based design.