Service Oriented Architecture: Six steps to a successful SOA

Taking an organization through a service oriented architecture implementation is an evolving process which needs the right approach to succeed. These six critical steps will put you on a sound footing.

Within the span of a few years service oriented architecture (SOA) has evolved from an esoteric technology niche, known only to a small group of technology cognoscenti, to a critical IT and business strategy discussed by virtually everyone within the IT executive ranks. Most companies today are either investigating SOA or have launched SOA-related initiatives during the past 18 months. However a major area of concern and frustration seems to be focused on execution. As with many past technology trends, the potential of SOA could remain largely unrealized unless organizations are able to execute successfully on both the technology and business levels.

Having been involved with numerous SOA projects, we have learned a number of important lessons. By adopting the lessons learned we have been able to dramatically mitigate the risks in subsequent SOA initiatives.

So let’s take a look at six of the most crucial steps a CIO can take when planning and building an SOA vision.

> Step 1:
Map SOA to your business

To be successful, organizations must approach SOA from outside the traditional technology boundaries. Rather than trying to map your business goals and requirements onto your SOA vision, try focusing on the key business drivers and map your SOA requirements so that they become an extension of the business goals. Use this as a mechanism to establish cooperation and co-ownership between IT and the business community.

A practical way to achieve this is by identifying key pain points, usually something like a broken business process or a requirement to get a single coherent view of customer information. These examples often require the integration and coordination of data that may span multiple applications and business processes and can be good use cases for the principles of SOA.

By involving the business users in the process you inspire their support and active participation, which can lead to the development of solid business cases for SOA.

> Step 2:
Take a long view and implement incrementally

SOA does not represent a quick fix to long-standing IT and business challenges. It is a long-term strategy, the impact and benefits of which cannot be realized over the short term. This may be one of the most important messages to convey upfront to stakeholders.

In order to plan for and accommodate the long-term nature of SOA, one should start out in a gradual fashion. We recommend starting on a smaller scale by first building the core infrastructure, skills and fundamental knowledge before starting with the larger and more critical phases. This not only allows for the tight management of risks associated with SOA, but it also enables one to learn from the experience and to improve the approach over time.