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Chapter 1: Get ting to Know SOA
With SOA, business managers work with IT to identify business services.
Together, they determine policy and best practices. These policies and best
practices become codified business services that represent honed company
business processes. No need, for example, to have 30 different variations on
an exchange rate translation application, each used by a different department
and all requiring IT time for ongoing maintenance. One business service will
do. Onward, the new world order!
Moving in Tandem with SOA
In any formal dance, from the cha-cha to the waltz, form matters. The form
is what allows you to dance with someone you’ve never met. When both
partners truly know the form, they move in tandem, are flexible, and navigate
with ease and grace.
SOA is form. It enables the business to move, change, partner, and reinvent
itself with ease and grace. In the beginning, mastering new steps requires
focus and attention. Over time, the steps become second nature.
Implicit in the notion of form is standards. Using industry standard interfaces
and creating business services without dependencies (more on that later, we
promise) allows the business vastly more flexibility than it enjoys today to
change its business model, reorchestrate itself, and partner dynamically.
Redundant reiteration, again
For any IT old-timers out there who have labored
long and hard in the IT trenches, the concept
of software reuse isn’t new. You’re familiar
with subroutine libraries and the great theme
of object orientation, and you extol the virtues
of standardization. “What’s the big deal with
SOA?” you ask. “Aren’t we already doing this?”
Well, yes and no. Yes, because the world of
SOA depends on a good understanding of reuse
and on the building of reusable components.
No, because SOA extends the idea of reuse not
only to Web services but also to business ser-
vices. (For definitions of business services and
Web services, look in Chapters 5 and 6.) In the
world of SOA, the level of granularity shifts pro-
foundly. No longer are we talking simply about
reusable low-level components: We’re talking
about reusable high-level business services.
This shift, and its implementation, is no mean
feat either for business managers or for IT, but
the rewards for everyone are dramatic.
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