SOA in Action Blog

Fellow ebizQ analyst Brenda Michelson reports the results of the SOA Consortium first-ever "SOA Soapbox Derby," intended to provide a 15-minute platform for participants to talk about important SOA issues on their minds.

Some soapbox highlights (with links to the podcasts, provided by Brenda):

Todd Biske, Senior IT Architect at Monsanto: "SOA Governance, done right or wrong, has most impact on an organization's SOA effort." Todd pointed out the importance of having clearly defined, measurable outcomes associated with SOA adoption, and then establishing policies and processes to support the attainment of those goals. To listen to Todd's soapbox, please go here.

Mike Kavis, Chief Technologist, Kavis Technology Consulting: "Organizational implications need to be managed and planned as part of SOA roadmap, with defined milestones." Mike also added that "people don't hate change; they hate the way change is introduced. People need to understand why the change is happening and what the implications for them are." To listen to Mike's soapbox, please go here.

Victor Harrison, Partner, CSC: "As agility goes up, so does (almost exponentially) the engineering rigor that is required. Engineering rigor is not easily socialized or scaled. A way of dealing with this is to embody this knowledge in a set of models...Moving knowledge from individuals to models allows you to socialize your development and delivery and get a better result more quickly at less cost."  To listen to Victor's soapbox, please go here.

Britta Schatz, Director, Information Technology, Penn National Insurance: "SOA is not out of reach for small and medium sized companies." Britta emphasized the importance of disciplined systems development, project management and change management practices, and the criticality of load and performance testing. To listen to Britta's soapbox, please go here.