Spotting the Good, and Bad, SOA Technology Vendors

As I’m working SOA projects these days I’m exposed to a number of SOA vendors…big, small, niche, and stack players. While doing this work I’m beginning to recognize some emerging patterns in spotting SOA vendor capabilities. Some of these patterns are good, some bad, some disturbing. Here are a few:

First, they know where they play. When considering the complexity of SOA, and the complexity of the problems they are solving, saying that you’re “one stop shopping” is a bit of a clue that you really don’t understand the notion of SOA, or your customer’s issues. Indeed, effective SOA vendors first listen to the issues, understand the problem domain in detail, and then suggest where they fit, or not. In essence, providing a realistic look at the pain points of the client organization, understand how SOA is applied and the potential value it brings, and exactly where they fit in the proposed solution.

Second, they know what they are talking about. The largest problem is the lack of expertise when it comes to SOA, and many of the solution engineers and sales people who show up on site do not have a working understanding of SOA, and typically need to work exclusively from sales presentations and sales brochures. If they don’t understand SOA, and the potential value, they won’t be able to understand the problems at hand, nor how their technology fits into a viable solution. I’ve sent a few of those guys out the door feeling a bit stupid, but gezzzzz, when you’re selling a car, understand not only how to drive that car, but the road network and traffic laws.

Third, be willing to move quickly to a POC pre-deal. Got good technology? Prove it. Vendors that are looking to demonstrate their technology beyond the demo-ware are on the top of the list as far as I’m concerned. It tells me that their stuff most likely works well and they are excited about sharing it with you. You would be surprised at how much technology is still half-baked, and verification is the rule these days.

Finally, they accept the fact that everyone is still learning. SOA, hype-wise is widespread. SOA, implementation-wise is not. Thus, we are still attempting to close the gap on what we think will work, and what actually does work, thus it’s going to be a learning process for the next few years. Accepting that, SOA vendors need to be constantly reinventing their approaches and technologies, understanding that the game will change as we all become better at SOA. Admitting that does not take away from your creditability, it adds to it.

The funny thing is that all of the vendors that read this blog, and there are about 100+ at last count, will think that they are in the “good column.” Unfortunately, a good number are not. Time to become self aware, and move to correct any of these issues before your customers read this blog, or you’re sitting across the table from me.