Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)
Insights from the front line

First published: July 2006

by Dale Vile

KEY FINDINGS

Experience-hardened practitioners are emerging from early SOA activity
While the level of knowledge and experience of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is still highly variable within the IT professional community, a solid core of experience and expertise is beginning to form. Around one in ten of the 1,332 respondents in a recent online research study declared themselves as having extensive in-depth SOA expertise. These “expert practitioners” typically come from organisations that have completed or are going through one or more SOA related initiatives, and their feedback provides useful insights for the community as a whole.

Expert practitioners say the benefits are there if you get past the buzzword soup
As with many developing areas of the IT industry, it can sometimes be a challenge to translate buzzwords and marketing messages into real-world practicality. Expert practitioners who have been through this process, however, can talk knowledgeably about these practicalities. Furthermore, they confirm significant benefits can be gained from SOA adoption through the simplification of systems integration, an increase in software engineering efficiency, and an ability to map IT systems onto the business more effectively to achieve better ongoing alignment of activities.

Cost savings are a pull, but the bigger drivers of SOA investment are value based
The practical benefits highlighted above are confirmed to translate to cost savings arising from the more efficient delivery of IT. Expert practitioners, however, say the ability to respond more rapidly and flexibly to business needs and to better enable business innovation are more important drivers.

Starting small is OK, but if you don’t have an overall plan, then get one
Those with more knowledge and experience of SOA advocate the parallel approach of defining an over-arching strategy and adoption plan, while simultaneously initiating discrete deliverable projects to develop skills and expertise, provide “early wins”, and refine the higher level plan iteratively over time. As SOA is about getting elements of the business and IT big picture working together more coherently, the benefits are hard to achieve through purely ad hoc or opportunistic activity.

Senior level buy-in is critical, but explaining SOA to executives can be a challenge
While experienced adopters tell us the centre of gravity for an SOA initiative should be firmly in the business domain, SOA concepts are most commonly articulated in IT systems terms, which is often an impediment to gaining senior manager buy-in. Many are of the opinion that developing language to articulate IT concepts to non-IT people is only part of the answer. More success can be achieved by focussing on business needs and illustrating through practical real world examples how SOA helps to meet them. It is more about IT people learning the language of business than vice versa.

Overall, SOA is an evolutionary concept, not some risky new technology
The overwhelming sentiment from the study is that SOA is not some radical new way of doing things; nor is it a new technology, or a technology of any kind, for that matter. SOA is simply a natural evolution of the way in which the enlightened have been delivering IT for many years.

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