We are almost down to the last week of the first year of the ebizQ Forum, and it's been a very good year (for the Forum). A true anchor of the Forum, and for ebizQ in general, is SOA. I typically ask an SOA question every Thursday, a question which often comes from Joe McKendrick, a true MVP of ebizQ.
So what follows are the five most vigorous (i.e. most answered) SOA Forums:
1) Are SOA and Agile a Good Match?
Comments:
JP Morgenthal: SOA is not about technology. Agile is a software development methodology.
Miko Matsumura: What people care about today is SOA Adoption, not SOA the architecture.
Soumadeep Sen: I think agility (in business as well as technology) is what you get out of enabling SOA.
2) What's Your SOA "Elevator Pitch?"
Comments:
Joe McKendrick: Hey, with that new acquisition of Acme Widgets, there's a risk that we will need to function as two separate businesses for a long time...If we adopt SOA practices, we can cut the integration time significantly, without tearing everything to pieces.
Chris Curran via Twitter: Never discuss "SOA" with a CEO!
Ed Horst: 25% of revenue already flows through our new SOA-based applications and, within 2 years, it'll be 100%.
3) Is SOA Ever a Tactical Discipline or is it Always Strategic, But Mapped into Tactical Requirements?
Comments:
JP Morgenthal: For the record, my stance is that it is ALWAYS strategic and mapped into tactical requirements, which means that your software engineering efforts are guided by the SOA design, but the effort itself is not SOA.
Neil Ward-Dutton: SOA effort has to be aligned with a long-term plan to deliver benefits. However those benefits can only be obtained, realistically, project-by-project.
Kelly Emo: Just to add one thought.. remember, what gets measured gets done.
4) Do Today's Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Get at all Close to the Original Vision of EA?
Comments:
Miko Matsumura: 20% of EAs that I've met really "get it". The problem is that the overlap between those EAs and organizations that "get it" is often rare.
Raymond Bordogna: Perhaps the original enterprise architects led us down the wrong path?
Greg Carter: We see many companies developing the models and descriptions that provide this "understanding" that you ask about. Unfortunately, EA is having problems because this knowledge is not being focused on the vision and goals of the business.
Comments:
JP Morgenthal: Let's just say the desire for SOA and the hype of SOA is everywhere. A good SOA is hard to find!
Mukund Balasubramanian: SOA had immense value but was too hard to understand for most non-architects. Therefore, rather than calling its failure, I would say it never really took off.
Tarak Modi: If an SOA is done correctly, it should meld into the background rather than sticking out like a sore thumb.
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