SOA, I could just K.I.S.S you! - Part 2

Welcome back. If you missed the first part of this series, please follow the link below to start at the beginning.

Step 1 - Stake in the Ground

Step 2 - Education
Now just because the name of this step is "Education" does not mean this is the only time that education will be taking place. In fact, it is safe to say that the entire process is about education as much as anything. But here in this step, education is the primary task.


****WARNING****
This is a typical place where things start to go wrong. Instead of taking the time to become educated on the various problems, possible solutions, vocabulary etc, many companies go right out and start implementing services or buying "Service Oriented" middle ware only to realize in time that they have no idea what they are doing. Of course then they will have invested time and money in some product or some group of services and stepping back away from money spent is a hard thing to do for any company. The natural tendency then becomes to push forward and make do with what you have. This results in more consulting fees, more product acquisition and more time spent going sideways or backwards. It won't be long before SOA is a four letter word and all hopes of achieving it are gone.


Before going down this road to despair, you need to start learning what SOA is, what problems it solves and what the challenges are regardless of whether you think you already know or not. You will undoubtedly find at least one thing that you weren't aware of or perhaps find that something you thought you knew was wrong. Any bit of knowledge gleaned from this is a success because you are progressing down the path.


One tidbit I'll offer is this: SOA is not a box of new ideas. In fact, you will find that SOA emphasizes many of the same concepts that have always been good ideas (Information Management, Governance, Business Process Management etc).


At each step, you will find that continued support from the top is important. Facilitate this by having regular updates with the SOA champion so they can see the progress you are making. Try to educate them as well as you educate yourself. Take care not to focus on the technical aspects to much when doing this however. Their main interest is how it affects the business. If you can continue to show how the business will be improved through your efforts, then you will continue to get support.
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Next Up: Organizational Governance