I happened to catch this article on the DDJ site which does a good job analyzing the reaction to the over hyping of SOA, and thus the inflated expectations.

"According to an InformationWeek Research Web survey of 273 business-tech pros last month, 24% of respondents using SOA and Web services say the projects fell short of expectations. Of those, 55% say SOA projects introduced more complexity into their IT environments, and 41% say they cost more than expected. Out of all respondents using SOAs and Web services, just 7% say the results exceeded expectations."

Why is this happening? Well, it's a matter of promising X and delivering Y. Personally, I put the blame on the SOA vendors for pushing SOA technology as a cure-all for the years and years of bad architecture and lack of integration. The reality is that SOA is hard, complex, takes time, and no number of layers of technology will fix bad architecture until you understand your own business issues, and align IT as the solution, and have a realistic process for getting their.

However, the downsides of SOA, does not mean there are not huge upsides to consider.

"Still, nearly half (45%) of survey respondents rate SOA projects as very important to their companies' business goals. The most common reasons for adopting the technology include standardization, automating business processes, cutting operating costs, and increasing customer satisfaction. Among companies using SOA, 72% say they hope to achieve increased application development flexibility, 61% list the ability to more quickly create apps that use Web services as important, and 58% say they want more modular software. But just 26% of respondents say they're pursuing SOA very aggressively."

Thus, most enterprises continue to move forward with their projects, despite the dark sides of SOA, perhaps reevaluating their expectations around what real benefits they can obtain and how long it will take them to get there.

Some of my advice would include:

1. Understand that the upfront analysis work will have to occur before you select your technology.
2. Make sure to employ a proof-of-concept early on to determine what the technology will really do, and its value within your problem domain.
3. Make sure you have the right people for the job.
4. Don't be afraid to change course in the middle of the project if needed.

Posted by Dave Linthicum on September 14, 2006 05:17 AM