Interesting discussion kicked off on eBizQ: Asking for reasons why SOA fails. Check out the opinions here.
I had to weigh in as I think those who say their SOA has failed are throwing a baby out with the bathwater. Yes, their initial attempts at a SOA-based project may stumble or even initially fail but I liken this to a toddler learning to walk... SOA is going to get there and companies will succeed... but there is a lot of learning to do. You just can't say "I gotta git me one of them SOAs" and have it work.
does this look familiar?
Here's my response to that threaded discussion:
I'd like to re-phrase the question. In my opinion, it's too early to ask why SOA fails... I think a more timely question may be "why do projects based on the principles of SOA fail"? Here's a quick metaphor.. My first round of golf was a complete failure. Did that make me a failure as a golfer? I don't think I could say that... I realized what I lacked was skills, education, practice and discipline. I'm now taking lessons. It is conceivable that I may turn out to be a failure as a golfer but one round is too early to tell.
I think many customers have made initial attempts to deliver projects that they believe are based on SOA but they are finding out that wanting to adopt SOA is not that easy and SOA just doesn't happen. We are now in the phase that I would like to call the "SOA school of hard knocks" where we are learning what it takes to effectively infiltrate SOA into the IT consciousness as an architectural approach and methodology to more easily modernize applications and orchestrate business processes. Initial projects may fail based on many of the reasons well communicated in earlier posts:
- lack of skills and education
- lack of definition of objectives and measures about how do we define success?
- lack of integration of the SOA effort with the rest of IT and the application lifecycle
But this doesn't make SOA a failure if an organization realizes they are on a journey and has the ability to learn from their mistakes and the intestinal fortitude to continue the effort. The benefits of taking the SOA journey will come for the organizations that have the patience to build the foundations for success -- skills, education, cultural change, clearly defined measures of success, governance, and linkages with the rest of the application lifecycle.
Back to the golf lessons...
Posted
02-19-2009 9:45 PM
by
kellyemo