“SOA and BPM Converging”…Duh

According to Forester, SOA and BPM are converging to the point that the “integration suite” market category is obsolete and is being replaced by emerging “integration-centric business process management suite” (IC-BPMS). You can see the complete article in Jax Magazine here.

“‘The products in this category have lowered the barrier between integration and new application development – particularly, the development of composite applications that extend the mindset of the organization to complete, cross-functional business processes,’ write the report’s authors, Forrester analysts Ken Vollmer and Henry Peyret.”

“The products in the new IC-BPMS category are ‘not your Dad’s EAI,’ Forrester analysts wrote in the report on the convergence titled, ‘The Forrester Wave: Integration-Centric Business Process Management Suites, Q4 2006 – IT View and Business View Tech Choice.'”

Not your “Dad’s EAI?”

Okay guys, let me be very clear. First, the use of BPM has always been a part of the notion of EAI, and indeed has always really been a part of SOA. Thus, pointing this out today, in 2007, is like pointing out that fire is hot…it’s not new, and rather obvious. Here are some key data points:

From my EAI book, now almost 10 years old:

“While some may dispute the relevance of BPM and EAI, we would argue that BPM is ultimately where EAI is heading.”

Also, from my blog this summer:

“Truth-be-told the discipline of BPM is really a part of everything having to do with integration, including EAI, B2B, and yes SOA. SOA’s ultimate goal is to provide abstraction layers that works with a business process (or orchestration) layer, allowing those who want to change processes to do so at that layer, and have the changes reflect back on the underlying information flows and service invocations.”

Moreover, I’m doing a keynote talk at the Business Process Management Conference April 24-26, 2007, on this very topic. SOA needs BPM, and the other way around.

Okay, I know, you get it. 🙂 I’ll shut up.

So, why does this drive me crazy? I think we just need to be at a much higher level of sophistication by now, both in the understanding of what SOA is, and how to use it in a sentence.

Truth of the matter is that from the beginning BPM has been systemic to SOA. SOA is not worth much without the notion of process management, and process management, if you ask me, is not worth much without the notion of SOA, or at least integration. I even run into product vendors today who tell my about their “new innovation,” the “marriage of BPM and integration.” Unfortunately, that’s neither new or innovative, albeit valuable and logical.