Back from the SOA World conference held in NYC. I was only there for a day, but enjoy my short time at the conference including meeting practitioners and vendors. I'm seeing the same people at all of these SOA conferences, including vendors and speakers. Not sure if that is good or bad. One of the things that keep popping up in my mind was once again the lack of "architecture" when you consider "service oriented Back from the SOA World conference held in NYC. I was only there for a day, but enjoy my short time at the conference including meeting practitioners and vendors. I’m seeing the same people at all of these SOA conferences, including vendors and speakers. Not sure if that is good or bad. One of the things that keep popping up in my mind was once again the lack of “architecture” when you consider “service oriented architecture.” I saw this in two major ways: First, was one of the case studies given during the general sessions. The focus was more on the technology and vendors they selected, ESB, governance, etc., and not on how they derived the solution and the method and process for doing so. At the end of the day I felt that what they really had was a JBOWS (just a bunch of Web services) with some fancy software around it. I hope they solved their business issues, but from the presentation it was not clear. Second, was the way that the vendors on the expo floor explained their products. I asked everyone the same question: “How does one figure out how and where your product should be leveraged.” In most instances I got the blank look, then back to the product pitch. In other words, they are able to define the core value of governance, development, and integration within an SOA, but don’t have a clue as to what you need to do to figure out how and where their product fits. Perhaps I’m being a bit unfair talking to those who are pulling booth-duty, but this is a huge issue nonetheless. SOA technology vendors need to teach as well as sell, and there is a difference. If I’m selling a SOA governance solution, for instance, I’m going to have the procedures, meta models, and best practices to demonstrate how my customer can both leverage my product correctly, and thus determine it’s value. The issue is that you’re in essence suggesting that a prospect go off do some homework before providing the PO, that’s something vendors don’t typically do, but should. Keep in mind, there is no SOA without architecture, and SOA is something you do not something you buy. I’m not sure that’s widely understood at this point. Software Development