Sometimes SOA works, but mostly it does not
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By David S. Linthicum
August 15, 2008 —
Recently, Burton Group told it like it is: They revealed information from their recent SOA survey, including the fact that SOA is working in some instances, but in many more instances companies are having trouble. And, as you may have guessed after following this column, it’s not the technology but the people who are hindering progress.
Indeed, according to Burton Group vice president and research director Anne Thomas Manes, many companies had nearly perfectly executed SOA implementations. However, this good news was quelled by the fact that in many other instances the initiative had yielded no increased agility, quicker time to market or project savings, because the business had no idea what was going on, SOA or no SOA.
Moreover, the study also found that users who break down corporate barriers, such as office politics, have a tendency to succeed, as do those who install proper governance and involve the business.
Summary: Work through your issues, consider the business and drive systemic change, and you'll reach SOA nirvana. No tricks about that.
Also, note that changing out the executive team and altering the culture is necessary for success. In some cases, the mere changing of the CIO caused the culture to change in support of SOA, and thus increased chances for success, if not guaranteed it. This is consistent with my experience as well; with new, more innovative management, they bring in people who are also innovative and thus alter the culture to prepare for the systemic change that defines SOA. Indeed, if you’re able to surround the notion of SOA with a business understanding, and people who understand the value and support its creation, then you’re about 80% of the way there… the technology is very easy.
On the downside, SOA does not seem to work for many companies. Burton Group found a 50% complete failure rate in the 20 companies studied, and another 30% were considered neither successful nor wholly failed. The results of the studies showed that many of the companies had indeed completed many “SOA” projects, but these projects were focused in a single instance of an integration problem, typically just exposing many Web services, which does not do much good. They are doing EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) really, and not SOA. There is a huge difference.
Other good data points from Burton Group, especially Anne Manes, included the failure factors around SOA:
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Lack of defined service models. |
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Infrastructure focus. |
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Governance only of SOAP-based systems, if that. |
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Failure of developers to leverage the runtime governance in place. |
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Initiatives led by and solely involving the app dev group. |
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Road maps lacking specificity. |
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Inability to measure ROI. |
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Project-centric culture. |
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An "I'm special" attitude. |
You’ve seen me address most of the above in this column. However, generally speaking, SOA is not tactical. You need to consider the people and you need to consider the business. SOA is holistic and systemic to the business. SOA is not a project, it's a journey. SOA is not integration, it's architecture. SOA is about business agility, not governance or other technology.
Specifically, SOA is about the proper understanding of the business. Put valid and well-formed plans around that understanding first, and only after that go purchase your technology solution. Most of IT out there does not think strategically, and thus it’s an endless array of tactical projects solving specific tactical problems; that actually makes things worse. What’s needed is somebody to drive change within those companies, but that’s typically something people don’t have the political will to do.
Thus one of the things that Burton discovered was that changes to innovative leaders often lead to success with SOA, and I suppose other aspects of IT as well.
Key to the success of SOA is the link between IT and business, which is something that rarely exists. Indeed, within most of the companies I’ve worked with, there seems to be a chasm between the two, leading them to no productive ends. Only good leadership and the willingness to bounce people out of there who are obstacles to change can fix this. I’ve had to do that many times in my career, and while difficult and disruptive, it is often the only way to fix things in the long run.
What is most surprising to people who follow the information from Burton is that SOA is not a technology concept, but more of a notion of change. As I stated above, once you understand your own issues, then the solution is an obvious end state. Thus, those who argue SOA governance approaches and service design concepts first need to ground themselves with their own realities.
Reach analyst David S. Linthicum at david@linthicumgroup.com.
Related Search Term(s): SOA & SaaS
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