SOA Goals are Critical First Step

During the upfront strategy phase of a SOA implementation it is desirable to focus on SOA goals by beginning to ask some of the hard questions about the need move to a service-oriented architecture (SOA). It is important here to identify the primary reasons behind the organization's decision to move to SOA.

Identifying SOA Goals, Strategy Helps Build Internal Support

There are many possible SOA goals which may benefit the organization; often it makes sense to identify both short-term and long-term objectives. The process of identifying these short- and long-term objectives (together with their associated benefits) can help to build support within the organization for the SOA initiative.

The "proper" approach to SOA is driven by a number of factors, the most important of which is the overall business strategy of the organization. Some businesses compete in highly dynamic markets where flexibility is paramount. Others find themselves in more mature industries and must concentrate on wringing the greatest efficiencies from their IT investments. The point is that SOA, like all IT investments, ought to be driven by business need. This means that those working to make SOA a success need to gain a firm understanding of what those business needs are -- typically by involving business stakeholders in the SOA team.

The SOA goals developed during the strategy phase can and should drive all efforts. It should be noted that very broad SOA initiatives have been evaluated -- and the analysis indicates that while planning for every potential SOA capability may be useful to the organization in some way, if "everything but the kitchen sink" winds up on the list of SOA goals, the effort can easily become too diffuse. In many situations, therefore, less is really more: organizations ought to be careful not to bite off more than they can chew with respect to their initial SOA goals. Finally, whichever goals are selected, these should documented with precision.

Pick SOA Goals to Match the Right Business Challenges

Let us consider the prospect of truly maximizing the value of the SOA pilot. Pilots can be very useful, and should leave the IT organization with knowledge and, in most cases, a solution that can be moved directly into production. Before setting forth, however, we must emphasize the importance of carefully considering our SOA goals. One common goal of SOA pilots is the creation of one or more services that have a high likelihood for reuse. Such pilots would ideally include the creation of not just the services, but also multiple consumers for those services: this demands that the SOA team designs truly loosely coupled services to promote "re-usability".

In organizations where SOA roadmaps are focused around extending the life of legacy systems, testing out the service enablement of such systems might be an appropriate goal for a pilot, providing the enterprise with both knowledge of the process and the beginnings of a registry populated with functional services.

SOA Goals for Pilots Emphasize "Keeping It Simple"

Other organizations may be seeking agility benefits from SOA. These firms are likely to find it important to perform a project that encompasses the significant methodology changes involved in working downward from a business model to the identification of services required to implement that model. (The use of a process engine to orchestrate the services will be part of the mix here, as well.) This sort of pilot falls toward the more complex end of the spectrum, but is nonetheless valuable for the (agility-focused) organizations that implement them. While there are many options to choose from, most organizations find they are most comfortable keeping their initial efforts simple in order to gain momentum and buy-in by delivering a "SOA success showcase".

For More Information

Find out how to match your SOA goals with the objectives of your business. Register to watch the free webinar, Implementing a Successful SOA Pilot