SOA Assessment

In a recent podcast I did for my "real" job, I talked about the importance of doing a good job of laying the groundwork for embarking on an SOA journey before going on the journey. I won't re-post the entire contents of that podcast (especially since there's also a transcript available), but I'll whet the appetite a bit: basically, I think it's very important that organizations understand a bit more about why they want to do SOA, and what SOA is and isn't, before they get "talked into" trying to make it work in their organization.

An educated and willing pilgrim is going to make it a lot further than one who's being dragged along or setting out without first being aligned to the vision.

SOA and BPM Made Real

For a lot of folks out there, the concepts of SOA and BPM are just a tad bit "too much" for them. Not that they can't get them and not that they don't understand that the goodness they can provide is something they need, but because it's just not real for them. They don't see how it fits in with their business or within their IT environment.

In this podcast, you can hear me talk with a couple manufacturing industry experts about a strategy of working within concepts manufacturers already understand -- like ERP systems, "modules," and "making my systems talk to each other" -- to ease them into understanding how SOA and BPM can be real for them even if we never say SOA or BPM.

More and more, I'm finding it to be the case that except for the megacorps and/or very uniquely skilled smaller companies, SOA and BPM will really only work for people and be real for them if we practitioners find ways to meet them where they are. We need to package the concepts up especially for their reality, and we need to talk to them in a language they can understand...and that's usually not through saying things like "SOA this" and "BPM that."