Service-oriented architecture (SOA) will not be a separate discipline and IT/business issue by 2012: it will have been folded into enterprise architecture.
Dave Linthicum, CEO of the Linthicum Group, made this prediction at The Open Group's 15th Enterprise Architecture Practitioner's Conference held recently in Austin, Texas.
Real IRM enterprise architect Clive Hatton attended the conference and says Linthicum caused consternation with his observation that SOA is secondary to enterprise architecture, and in time will not exist outside the context of enterprise architecture.
"Five years from now, we won't be talking about SOA... it will all be folded into EA," said Linthicum.
His comments were picked up and transmitted around the blogosphere in record time and stimulated renewed discussion on a topic that has been simmering for the last four years: will SOA supplant enterprise architecture, or is enterprise architecture the dominant discipline?
"Linthicum's comments are in line with our position at Real IRM," says Hatton. "SOA is a style of architecture and forms part of enterprise architecture."
Hatton himself presented "Architecture Viewpoints - Different Strokes".
"Presenting architecture models that business-people can actually understand and use is an important part of an enterprise architect's job, and can be essential in communicating the value of architecture to business."
Hatton shared insights from presentations at the conference and meetings of The Open Group's SOA Working Group.
"The Open Group has an active SOA working group," says Hatton. "It aims to develop and foster common understanding of SOA and facilitate alignment between the business and information technology communities."
He adds: "It does this through a work programme that produces definitions, analyses, recommendations, reference models and standards. These help business and IT professionals to understand and adopt SOA."
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