Ann Bednarz did a good job with this article "Best Practices for Your Enterprise SOA" which I was interviewed for some time ago. "The benefits of the service-oriented architecture are widely touted: reduced integration costs, greater asset reuse, and the ability for I.T. to respond more quickly to changing business and regulatory requirements. But what about the pitfalls? SOA pioneers know all too well the chal Ann Bednarz did a good job with this article “Best Practices for Your Enterprise SOA” which I was interviewed for some time ago. “The benefits of the service-oriented architecture are widely touted: reduced integration costs, greater asset reuse, and the ability for I.T. to respond more quickly to changing business and regulatory requirements. But what about the pitfalls? SOA pioneers know all too well the challenges that can arise when a company service-enables critical applications. The SOA endeavor spans I.T. disciplines: It’s part systems design and architecture overhaul, part application development and business makeover.”The article goes on to discuss best practices as stated by SOA experts. Here are some of the highlights:“2. Don’t take interoperability for granted. When Washington Group International began its SOA implementation three years ago, standards and tools weren’t as mature as they are today. A key challenge was building Web services that could be consumed by both Java and Microsoft .Net clients, says Rich Colton, application integration manager at the Boise, Idaho, engineering and construction company.”While everyone assumes that there is some law that systems will interoperate, the reality is that many systems won’t work and play well together without a lot of work. Even with today’s toolsets. “3. Don’t open your wallet too quickly. When I.T. embarks on an SOA project, the first thing it often wants to do is buy new technology. But before committing to a technology platform, I.T. needs to identify all information sources and make sure it documents how each system defines data, says Dave Linthicum, CEO of SOA advisory firm Linthicum Group.”Seems like common sense to me, but the pre-requirement technology buys are still an issue out there. “6. Budget realistically, or buy-in will suffer. ‘People are hungry for information about how to budget for this stuff. The reality is, people don’t understand the complexity of it, so they underestimate’ cost, says Linthicum, who has devised guidelines for pricing SOA projects based on variables that include the number of data elements, the complexity of systems and processes, and new services needed.”Budgeting for SOA projects are not that difficult, just complex. There are approaches and formulas you can leverage that are logical. No need to approach these projects blindly. Good thoughts, I’m thinking. Software Development