On 20/07/06, Robin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Hi Dennis, > I agree with you that aligning IT with Business should be a best > practice already. It's one of the purpose of Enterprise Architecture. > > But what do we mean exactly by aligning SOA with Business? > Do we mean that services are actions/events on the core business > objects? > Do we mean that services are activities of existing business > processes? > Do we mean that services packaging should reflect the current > business organisation (domains, departments and so forth)?
Nope and nope... and nope... Services should (IMO) represent the core "whats" of the business, this sometimes (though rarely) maps to the organisational structure, but critically goes right from the top to the bottom. "Sales" is a service at the top of the company and the company itself provides a service to the market (which in itself is a service etc etc). > > I think that more than aligning IT with the Business, a good SOA must > survive the business evolution by providing a set of useful services > that can be reused in the future in a new context. > Guessing what these services are is more an art than a scienc and > Business people should be involved here. Business people MUST be involved here, IT has miserably failed to deliver an IT organisation that looks like the business so the business has to define the services it wants to see. Some services will be re-used, others are going to evolve, the key is that both of those elements must occur in the same manner as the business change driving them. > > Moreover, the ecosystem of services is something that will live and > will follow the business evolution. Managing change in a business- > aligned SOA should be a normal operation. If not, the SOA could be > business aligned today and no more business aligned in 5 years or > more. 100% agree with that, evolution is the standard practice which is why services must be designed to change within their implementation, and hence why they need to have structure that goes right to the top. > > Robin > > --- In [email protected], Dennis > > Sosnoski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > It's very interesting to see the different views of SOA floating > around > > on the list. I think most people would agree that the fundamental > > principle of SOA is loosely-coupled service components, and most > people > > would also agree on these components exchanging data in the form of > XML. > > Beyond that things get very fuzzy, and in some cases seem to be > getting > > pretty far removed from these basic principles. > > > > I've seen an increasing number of statements both on- and off-list > along > > the lines of "SOA is about aligning IT with the business". This > > certainly makes a good selling point when dealing with business > > executives who feel their IT operations aren't delivering value for > > their money, but is this really a principle of SOA? I'd think that > it's > > more a matter of good business management to have IT aligned with > the > > business, irrespective of whether IT is doing SOA or silo > applications. > > > > SOA certainly increases the value of having IT in harmony with the > > business, in that you're building service components that are going > to > > be around for a very long time rather than "disposable" standalone > > applications. I have a hard time seeing what appears to be a > business > > management issue as a core part of "Service Orient(at)ed > Architecture", > > though. Perhaps there should be a new acronym - say Service Orient > (at)ed > > Process, or SOP ;-) - to cover the management side of things. > > > > - Dennis > > > > -- > > Dennis M. Sosnoski > > SOA, Web Services, and XML > > Training and Consulting > > http://www.sosnoski.com - http://www.sosnoski.co.nz > > Seattle, WA +1-425-296-6194 - Wellington, NZ +64-4-298-6117 > > > > > > > ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Something is new at Yahoo! Groups. Check out the enhanced email design. http://us.click.yahoo.com/SISQkA/gOaOAA/yQLSAA/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/
