Friday, February 20, 2009

Struggle to implement Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

The struggle to implement service oriented architecture comes from the gap between technology implementation of business requirement. SOA enables the vertically-constrained architecture to a horizontally-layered approach, which embraces business architecture right down to the hardware resources. SOA implementation needs to start with understanding the business requirements and objectives as the driver. Unfortunately many implementation of SOA start from the technology side. Usage of new technology with no regard to business requirements is a killer of SOA as investments increases beyond justifiable limits. Acquiring the right skills (business and technical) are a must for successful SOA implementation. SOA implementation requires a substantial cultural change before real progress is made in bridging the divide between the organization and technology. Also, internal politics is often a major contributor to difficulties with SOA, especially as services and resources are now shared. There is a need for trust to be built by the IT department with the rest of the organization.