Services-oriented architecture (SOA) is not a simple concept, and a lack of SOA understanding is cited as one of the reasons for SOA project management failure.
A panel discussion held during the ITWeb SOA 2009 Conference, last week in Bryanston, revealed how companies can avoid SOA disillusionment and unrealistic expectations.
Neville Nightingale, director of Vicitude Business Solutions, said as soon as business executives get out of their comfort zones, they tend to slip back into their traditional thinking.
“Businesses need to educate everybody who will be involved in an SOA project. One of the biggest mistakes a lot of companies make is they haven't moved beyond their comfort zone. The organisation needs to have constant workshops and reinforcement, and a benefits review after each step,” Nightingale said.
Top down
Ignatious Thithi, principal consultant for Ovations Technologies, said complete SOA buy-in needs to come from the top. “One of the most difficult things any enterprise architect typically faces is the credibility of having to sell the idea to people that really matter.”
“One of the most misleading things one can do within an SOA initiative is to justify it, using return on investment as a measure of success. One should rather look at return on assets, because a clearly defined SOA strategy improves the utilisation of corporate assets.”
Master-slave
Thithi added: “Accept the ugly truth, the relationship between business and IT is a master-slave relationship. The implication of this is that IT has to place SOA in a business case.”
SOA needs to be relevant to the business environment: “SOA is a pattern of doing business; it's something that says we will only have one process instead of having many versions of the same thing.”
Unai Ormaetxea, Tibco senior solutions architect, agreed with Nthithi that SOA cannot exist in isolation. He compared applications to that of big cats, emphasising they need to work as a pack. “SOA on its own provides zero value. Lack of understanding of SOA is one of the biggest problems businesses face. It's difficult to justify the value of SOA project management.”
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