SOA must drive business

By Candice Jones, ITWeb online telecoms editor

Johannesburg, 05 Sept 2007

Challenges to approaching service-oriented architecture (SOA) are based in three main areas, says Rachel Seabela, system architect at City Power.

The first challenge is to get buy-in; secondly, to ensure the architecture meets the business requirements set out by any given organisation; and finally, to manage the change that needs to take place, adds Seabela, a keynote speaker at the ITWeb SOA 2007 Conference.

"SOA cannot be approached in a quantitative manner. The problem with this is companies are asked to spend large amounts of money for something that seems to have intangible benefits," she says.

Implementers need to build solid business cases to substantiate that spend, she notes. One possible solution is to approach any SOA implementation from what she calls an enterprise architecture perspective.

Design in progress

Neil Cave, senior consultant for technology integration at Deloitte Consulting, says one of the most important questions that needs to be asked before designing or implementing an SOA is: How can SOA support the business requirements and processes of an organisation?

Cave, who will speak alongside Seabela at the SOA 2007 conference, adds that the best approach is to assess the organisation's maturity and various aspects of its architecture. These aspects include business, technology, data and solutions architectures. "This will tell you whether the company needs SOA.

"When looking at the analysis and design for City Power, we looked at the value chain and business processes. We used the business side of the company as a basis for the design of its SOA."

He adds that this approach moves the implementation of the architecture from technology to business.

Seabela says the organisation's objectives must first be addressed. However, ultimately, all the components come together to build a best practice SOA. "Is the primary requirement for the organisation business or technology? Ultimately, the SOA needs to enable those requirements."

Both Seabela and Cave agree that building SOA from a business case will be one of the bridges that will align business and IT and, in the long run, provide a platform for business and IT integration.

Seabela and Cave will outline how City Power Johannesburg embarked on its SOA journey at the ITWeb SOA 2007 Conference on 19 September at Gallagher Estate in Midrand.