Long message follows, apologies to those reading this on a cellphone or blackberry. :)
> These existing applications were > not created with flexibility in mind, and hence, while the business > is leapfrogging with new and enhanced processes, the IT backbone is > incapable of honoring the required changes. Traditional applications > and architectures are not able to keep up with business innovation, > primarily because the processes are not adaptable to on demand > business needs... The traditional inflexibility of > application architectures makes even small improvements so expensive > that they become virtually impossible to justify.... First off, I have no arguments with what Tilak wrote. The one thing that bothers me a little bit about the tone of this and of many others just like it is that IT is the boat anchor preventing business from becoming more agile. While these articles are written with an IT audience in mind, I find it hard to believe that there are many companies out there who have everything else in the enterprise ready to move quickly, but IT holds them back. I would expect that the problem is far deeper, with IT just being a contributor. This begins to create a chicken versus the egg scenario. One of the lines I quoted above states, "These existing applications were not created with flexibility in mind." My reaction is why not? If the business requirements did not call for flexibility, that's what happens. The business requirements should be driven from a business strategy right? If the business strategy didn't call for flexibility, then is this company going to be able to react nimbly to changes in the environment that call for agility? Probably not. What really then is the crux of the problem? IT? No, I'd say it's a broader corporate culture issue, of which IT is a part. How then can IT start to introduce these requirements for agility when the business isn't explicitly requesting them? That's where IT can be an agent for change. What's required to do this? IT must become far more business aware, which is the same conclusion drawn by Tilak and many others. At the Gartner Web Services Summit, there was a great keynote from Michael Raynor, co-author of "The Innovator's Solution." He discussed the nature of disruptive innovation and gave many case studies including when Steel belted radial tires came out, steel mills, Dell/HP/Compaq, Sears/Walmart, etc. The themes behind this keynote and that of these articles is consistent. Good business practices can lead to rigid, inflexible systems (when it's IT, Operations, Manufacturing, or anything else). This can lead to opportunities for smaller, nimbler companies to increase their presence. In some cases, this can lead to a shift in demand/priorities, in some cases it doesn't. The challenge is to understand your market dynamics and respond accordingly. So, after all of this, what's my point? I think it's that while flexibility is in general, a good thing, it does come at a cost. As IT providers, we need to understand the business and the market dynamics to determine where that flexibility is needed. This, in turn, will help us define where to apply Service Oriented principles and invest the necessary upfront costs to increase flexibility and where we should not. This is not an easy problem, since it's the same problem that CxO's deal with on a daily basis. Invest wisely, the company does well. Invest poorly, and the company will suffer. How do we determine this? I'm no MBA, but I suspect that process improvement principles like Six Sigma which, consistent with what Tilak says, embrace metrics and KPIs will help provide the data to guide those investment decisions. Thoughts? Most of you have far more experience than I, so I may just be stating a lot of common knowledge. I've always been interested in better alignment between technology and its consumers stemming from my college days focusing on human computer interaction and usability, so I find these discussions very enlightening. -tb ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A.G. Edwards & Sons' outgoing and incoming e-mails are electronically archived and subject to review and/or disclosure to someone other than the recipient. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Most low income homes are not online. Make a difference this holiday season! http://us.click.yahoo.com/5UeCyC/BWHMAA/TtwFAA/NhFolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/service-orientated-architecture/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
