--- In [email protected], "Kirstan Vandersluis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I agree that the *biggest* impact is achieved when the business > fully buys in and drives the process. But from a pragmatic > standpoint, think of not only Fortune 2000 companies, but the vast > hundreds of thousands of mid-size companies that could benefit from > SOA. I think in only a small percentage of cases will business > executives be convinced to drive SOA.
IMO, business executives never drive much of anything. They approve/disapprove proposals made by others. :-) > At SOA World a couple weeks ago, Johan Nordin, CIO at Volvofinans > (200 employee finance company for Volvo), one of the featured > speakers, scoffed at the notion of a top-down mandate from business > executives to drive SOA. I'm paraphrasing what he said: "I can't > wait around for executives to agree and let it flow down. We > wouldn't see it in my lifetime. We have to drive it from beneath > and from the top." Reasonable. But I think you missed my point a little. I wasn't focused on who was driving the effort. Rather, the bigger bang is (ostensibly) at the business level, regardless of who drives. > If you can't wait around for business executive support, the > question becomes, can you successfully drive SOA from the IT side? > I had a short conversation with Anne Manes at JavaOne, asking about > the characteristics of the few SOA successes she found. One > company had a surprising level of success where the primary driver > was a small number of highly motivated, business-centric IT > *architects*. I was surprised and relieved that an architect could > have such a positive impact. Actually, I wasn't really surprised, > but definitely relieved that architects were given credit for this > change! Business-centric is the key, when trying to get the most from SOA and applying it to the BA/EA levels. > IMO, 5+ years from now, with a new wave of MBA's seeping into > executive management positions with better SOA-aware IT knowledge, > SOA will be driven by business executives. But for now, I think > for the vast majority of businesses, it will be the smart, > influential, business-centric IT people who will drive SOA. Let's not forget that IT people are business people! IT is a part of the business! :-) -Rob
