Think outside the box
Miko Matsumura writes in his blog:
I think as SOA “Crosses the chasm”, there’s a need for more people to think in terms of the architecture side. The architecture side tends to better keep an eye out for the bigger organizational goals. If SOA is truly to meet a larger vision including:
1) Aligning business and IT
2) Making IT strategic and a key part of competitive advantage
3) Enhancing business agility
4) Creating dramatic new forms of resource reuse
then folks need to be mindful of the architecture, the “A” side.
I agree with this completely. A favorite line of mine is that the “A” in SOA stands for architecture, not application. SOA is all about thinking outside of the box, that is, looking beyond the boundaries of the problem/project at hand. That’s something that doesn’t come easy.
At the same time, we can’t forget about the “S” either. The best solution will leverage the tactical “S” opportunities at hand to achieve the strategic “A” direction. There are risks in going too far in either direction. I consider myself more of “big picture” thinker and have always found that the most successful projects I’ve been involved with have had someone who was very detail oriented working with me. The “S” and the “A” must complement each other to achieve success.
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[…] This is a tricky one. If your organization has some form of formal reviews, you’re already performing some governance, so it’s simply a matter of utilizing the existing gates to address service issues, such as reviewing the existing service library for possible services, determining where organizational ownership should lie, etc. If you don’t, then it’s time to start gathering some evidence to show the need. I would expect that sooner or later, a situation will arise that formal governance should have caught. The other way I would try to recommend governance is to first get some understanding on barriers to SOA, the biggest of which are the constraints placed by projects. If the project team stays constrained, odds are the effort will only yield results that are of value within those constraints. The only way to get around this is to give someone the responsibility to look outside of those constraints. Assigning the project staff to do this puts the project at risk. A better approach is to assign someone from outside the project to do this at the appropriate times. If you’re able to get people to understand that thinking outside of the box is a requirement for SOA, they may allow a pilot governance program to begin. […]