There have been a few debates in this forum in recent weeks that I've been following, the latest being under the heading "WOA is Me â" Another Acronym? WOA and SOA".
I think it is fair to say that in the wider IT community, never mind the business, people are often confused by all the different acronyms, conference topics and marketing initiatives that are around. Recently I read on IT Insider that, in the USA at least, it has reached the stage where: "...Companies hire SOA consultants, sue SOA consultants for being over-priced and over-promised, and now both companies have to hire SOA consultants to define SOA in court..." I thought it might be worth going back to basics, so I've made an attempt with my blog post "Understanding SOAâ http://www.keystonesandrivets.com/kar/2008/04/understanding-s.html to explain simply how SOA works, how it can be used and, with the use of a real-world example (not involving me or my company), describe why a properly planned and implemented Service Oriented Architecture can create a flexible way of aligning business and IT. Feedback is very welcome. Paul Wallis CTO, Stroma Software (UK) Ltd
