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Chapter 1: Get ting to Know SOA
Management and IT were very sad. They knew that ABC wouldn’t survive if
they couldn’t find a new way of thinking about business process and technol-
ogy. So they began asking everyone they knew of any way to save ABC. They
searched, and they studied, and they prayed — until one day, a package
arrived. In that package were several copies of a yellow-and-black book titled,
Service Oriented Architecture For Dummies, 2nd Edition.
Both management and IT took copies of the book and read. They were very
excited to discover that they didn’t have to throw away valuable assets and
that they could reap benefits in a short time. In the end, they came up with a
new strategy, one based on five key elements:
✓ The IT organization will partner with the business managers to create
a high-level map of the business processes, followed by each line of
business. This will help identify the similarities, differences, and
interrelationships across the business lines for the company.
✓ The IT organization will create a flexible structure that will turn key IT
software assets into reusable business services that can be used no
matter how the business changes. These business services will include
everything from business processes and best practices to consistent
data definitions to code that performs specific business functions.
✓ The IT organization will begin replacing the hundreds of redundant busi-
ness services locked in old software with these new reusable services.
✓ The IT organization will use only accepted industry standards to link
these software assets.
✓ The IT organization will use the service oriented architecture concept
described in the rest of this book to begin to create business services
that are consistent with how the business operates.
Together, management and IT began a journey. As far as we know, they are
living happily ever after. In Part V, we give you many real-life case studies
from companies you might recognize that indeed are alive and well and living
happily on their journey to SOA.
Better Living through Reuse
One of the biggest deals in the SOA world is the tenet that you don’t have to
throw away things. You take the stuff (software assets) that you use every
day — well, the best of the stuff you use every day — and package it in a way
that lets you use it, reuse it, and keep on reusing it.
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