In this release.

"The Open Group, a vendor- and technology-neutral consortium focused on open standards and global interoperability within and between enterprises, today announced the creation of The SOA/TOGAF(TM) Practical Guide Project."

This is a collaborative effort by members of The Open Group who recently formed SOA Working Group and The Open Group's Architecture Forum. The new project was created to provide guidance for enterprise architects on the use of The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) in developing a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA).

"A primary outcome of the project will be a practical guidebook for performing SOA with TOGAF. The practical guide, which is scheduled for release in early 2007, will leverage the industry's leading research and perspectives on SOA preparation and implementation for architecture practitioners, business executives and IT staff alike. Additionally, the SOA/TOGAF Practical Guide Project will be led by some of the industry's most innovative and knowledgeable enterprise architects, taking advantage of the combined contributions made by The Open Group's SOA Working Group and Architecture Forum."

It get it, they are thinking SOA now. Good for them. Indeed any thoughts around procedures, approaches, and methods to build SOAs are an improvement upon the vendor and hype driven mania that I see out there now. While I don't know the details yet I'm sure the Open Group has something practical and reasonable.

What you have to remember about things like this is that the real value is the discipline that they outline, but really don't provide. You, the architect, must learn how to leverage this approach, or others, for the problems you're looking to solve. If you don't do that, all the approaches, frameworks, and methodologies won't help you.

Posted by Dave Linthicum on October 31, 2006 06:21 AM