• Is your organization large and complex?
• Do you have more than two primary systems that require integration?
• Redundant poorly integrated applications?

If you answered yes to all three questions, then your company is a prime candidate for an SOA assessment.

Before you get on the wagon, however, know that SOA involves much more than merely building software. SOA is an architectural strategy based on a portfolio of services. You are preparing for a global odyssey as opposed to a short vacation to Florida.

To embark on such a journey, you need the sponsorship of business leaders who are supportive of technology innovation, as they must provide a large IT budget to cover a scope like SOA. For example, a CIO must make a compelling case for enterprise architecture, a centralized development methodology, and a centralized staff of project managers, architects, and developers. A CEO and executive staff must be willing to have IT dive into the core business processes of the company.

In addition, one should create a centralized architecture group to choose service-enabled processes and to consult with different areas of the company to build the specific services. The centralized group also carries the benefit of providing a convenient mechanism for governance. Because all service requests have to go through the architecture group, the service development methodologies, projects, and performance agreements will be easier to manage.

It is important to emphasize, however, that development methodology has no real value until it is implemented on a complex, redundant infrastructure that is in need of applications consolidation or elimination. Far too often companies are using SOA for traditional application integration where there are little opportunities to reap the full benefits of SOA. Remember that SOA cuts through complexity and redundancy—it is a problem solver. Unless you have a system of issues to fix, you will not experience the value of SOA.

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