I found this article to be an interesting read this morning, specifically the data points that IBM has around the lack of SOA talent hindering the forward progress of SOA. Here is the most interesting excerpt: "From IBM's internal survey of F1000 executives using or considering SOA, Carter shared the following findings. [The survey was conducted during IBM's 2007 IMPACT Conference]: 56% respondents say a lack of I found this article to be an interesting read this morning, specifically the data points that IBM has around the lack of SOA talent hindering the forward progress of SOA. Here is the most interesting excerpt: “From IBM’s internal survey of F1000 executives using or considering SOA, Carter shared the following findings. [The survey was conducted during IBM’s 2007 IMPACT Conference]: 56% respondents say a lack of SOA skills is ‘the #1 Inhibitor’ to launching and delivering SOA projects with strong business impact About half of all respondents admit they have less than 25% of SOA skills they deem necessary to meet long term goals 80% of respondents will invest to increase SOA skills in their company this year More than 60% of corporate executives invested in SOA-targeted retraining for both IT and Business staffs in the past year The IBM survey findings are in accord with at least one SOA analyst firms’ views: ‘One dire prediction…is that there simply won’t be enough qualified and SOA experienced enterprise architects (EA) around,’ said a 2007 report from Zapthink.” I’ve been screaming about this for a few years now, and so has ZapThink. Now the data points are coming in that the lack of SOA talent is killing SOA. Indeed, the larger issue is that the wrong people are working SOA projects, and thus are being setup for failure (see below). Moreover, people are paying big bucks for SOA consultants, and they also have no clue. The reality is that those who are attempting SOA need to have a holistic understanding of all enterprise systems, from the data to the processes, and have the ability to create an approach and process around the use of SOA concepts, in synergy with Enterprise Architecture. This needs to be done independent of the technology. This is architecture driven, not technology driven. Another issue is the fact many of those working on SOA projects within the larger enterprises get those jobs for political reasons. It’s a cool project, and if you’re in good with the CIO chances are you’ll get the gig. It does not matter if you’re qualified or not. This is also a recipe for disaster. So, get your talent established first. Then, do the project. Software Development