A system and method to automatically generate a software service to provide service layer functionalities to legacy computing systems that are inherently incompatible with a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) consumer environment. A configuration specification defining the characteristics of the software service, including data mapping rules is received. Based on the specification, at least one pattern template for the software service is selected from a library of templates. The pattern templates provide source code patterns usable to build the software service. Source code of the software service is outputted using programming code provided in the at least one design pattern template. The outputted source code is packaged or assembled into a source code package for deployment.