Business-Driven Architect

In the January 2007 issue of BPTrends, David S. Frankel of SAP, points out commonalities in leading IT and business thinking regarding loose coupling, orchestration, and eroding silos. Besides doing a nice job summarizing leading business thinking, David provides an honest look at the current state of SOA adoption:

The preponderance of IT trade press articles and analyst reports leave the impression that SOA, IT's key initiative of the decade, is spreading very quickly. However, the reality is somewhat different. Many businesses are holding back on making the large IT investments that SOA requires, and IT spending is not ramping up at a pace that compares with previous IT waves. Big upsurges of IT investment occurred in the past when business people could see that the outlays would enable them to reconstruct their businesses in compelling ways.

(emphasis is mine)

and, offers insights on restarting a business-driven SOA conversation:

...the similarity of this thinking to that of IT thought leaders presents an opportunity for IT to work its way back to the mainstream of the strategic business conversation.

Re-establishing Confidence
This is a situation where some humility could help our IT community. We must acknowledge that we have created our own set of rigid silos, and that we have a lot of work to do to remedy the situation. SOA is simply the IT version of the move to evolve to more flexible organizational forms. But if we claim that IT can make the full transition to SOA quickly, or even that we have solved all the problems inherent in such a transformation, it will not take savvy business executives long to recognize the emptiness of such claims.

In an atmosphere where IT approaches the business with candor, we can start a new conversation. We can point out to business executives that if they want to break down organizational silos, arrange the business as a set of loosely coupled assets, and combine and recombine those assets dynamically, then IT must organize its systems that way as well.

What we can offer the business is a partnership entailing a coordinated, at times wrenching, longterm process of change on both sides of the house. If we manage this partnership well, there are ample gains within reach in the short term, and profound advances in the offing for the long term. IT is going to have to act like a mature business unit in order for such a partnership to work. We must recognize that our part of the transition requires more than just "air dropping" an SOA package into picture. We have to take enterprise architecture extremely seriously; the "top gun" mentality that too often prevails in IT is a characteristic of immaturity.

Conversation Pieces
A successful start to the conversation should allow us to begin drawing more connections beyond the basic correspondence of the two camps' thinking about silos, loosely coupled assets, and dynamically composing assets.

If you get a chance, read David's article, particularly the section on "What Business Thought Leaders are Saying". I'd also second David's acknowledgment of Jeff Pendleton in bringing forward the business research and business-IT thinking ties. I've also had the pleasure of conversing with Jeff on this topic.

Another good (related) resource is Hagel and Brown's The Only Sustainable Edge.