SOAs are not built by computers; they are built and managed by people. As such, you have to consider the impact to the humans as well as the impact to the enterprise architecture. There are two places to focus here. First, focus on the SOA-ability of the people building the SOA. Second, focus on those who will be using the services and interfaces of the SOA.

Those tasked with building a SOA need to have a firm grasp of traditional enterprise architecture, and the notion, approaches, and technology of SOA. For most organizations that's a tall order, and outside consultants could be needed for mentoring initial projects, and internal training on approaches and tactics.

In other words, if your people don't understand and have experience with SOA, chances are they will fail. Thus, you need to hire the experts to seed the organization with knowledge, or, in some cases, hire new people who are better suited for the execution of a SOA project. Not an easy decision, but it could save the project.

Finally, consider those who leverage the services, processes, data abstractions, and the resulting new visual applications. How will this change the way they do their job? How will you train them? How will you support them? How will you measure success in their minds?

Posted by Dave Linthicum on May 4, 2008 05:54 AM