Service-oriented architecture (SOA) projects are often abandoned because they are incorrectly assessed and implemented, explains Joe Ruthven, business development manager for open computing and SOA at IBM.
"A company has to understand its own business drivers if they want to succeed with SOA," he says. "They have to identify existing initiatives that, if applied to SOA, will benefit the bottom line."
According to Ruthven, SOA should never be viewed as a technology, but rather as a style that is intrinsically linked to a company's core business drivers.
In fact, Ruthven states, business often rejects SOA because it views it as a technology. "Business and IT need to connect. Business needs to see benefit in order to increase the IT budget."
A way to achieve this, says Ruthven, is for IT to present the solutions that are possible after the SOA implementation, rather than the concept itself.
Organisations also often fail when they ignore the importance of governance. Governance, especially at larger organisations, aids in application reuse, says Ruthven. "There needs to be buy-in from the organisation," he stresses.
Many organisations fall short in their understanding of what SOA is. "People mistake what services are. And they fail to link their technical services to their business services."
When understood and applied correctly, Ruthven notes, SOA can have immense benefits for any organisation.
"As a methodology, nothing beats SOA."
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