Thinking SOA…

There seems to be a lot of confusion when it comes to traditional enterprise architecture and SOA. So, while many argue revolution, I ague assimilation and enhancement. This means that SOA provides a core systemic value to enterprise architecture, and thus it’s difficult to separate the two notions. Moreover, those that are successful with these concepts learn quickly how to think SOA.

While many of you are nodding your head right now believing what I say is true, there are more enterprise architects out there that don’t really get SOA (and don’t read this blog), and have yet to begin to think SOA. This is going to lead to many enterprises not finding the value within IT that they need, and their management demands.

So, how do you think SOA? It’s really a matter of thinking more about interoperable components, not layers and layers of technology. It’s really about thinking agility, and not just a technology solution instance. In other words, thinking SOA may need to leverage a different side of your brain when coming from a more traditional world. In my keynotes this Fall, I hope to make a lot of noise about that notion. Hopefully, I’ll convert a few.

The core issue is that we do what we know, and those who have been doing traditional enterprise architecture for years always fall back on their knowledge of models, frameworks, and the management concepts around enterprise architecture. Can’t blame them, really.

However, SOA is a different way of thinking about systems development, governance, testing, configuration, and even information. While the core components may still be present, the way that these components interoperate, using services, is going to have some new and valuable patterns. Now is the time to figure out what’s new, how to leverage these notions, and learn how to do SOA right, and make it systemic to your enterprise architecture.

So, change your brain.