SOA for Profit, A Manager's Guide to Success with Service Oriented Architecture [Hardcover]

Martin van den Berg (Author), Norbert Bieberstein (Author), Erik van Ommeren (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 28, 2007

Service-Oriented Architecture is becoming the leading architecture for IT, and it is changing the way organisations work. IT is slowly but steadily gaining maturity, and becoming the flexible yet stable and reliable support for business it should be. At the same time, IT is regaining its potential to create real business innovation. SOA will be an enormous step in the right direction for any organisation, but only if it is not approached as solely a technology issue. Technology is very interesting, and poses many challenges, but the real value will only be found when addressing the many coherent aspects that define the workings of business and IT in modern organisations. _SOA for Profit_ explains the value and essence of SOA. It makes SOA practical and pragmatic: turning models and vision into an actionable approach to start doing SOA in projects that deliver businessvalue. It emphasizes the importance of governance and architecture and shows that a broad vision of SOA is essential for deriving benefits from it. This book will bridge the gap between business and IT by providing tools and a common language that can be used when starting up a strategic dialogue that is the basis of business driven IT. Written by a team of authors from Sogeti and IBM, _SOA for Profit_ is a real-world book: based on experiences with real companies and real projects.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book serves as an introduction to SOA for both Business Managers and IT. It helps to explain and reiterate the concepts underpinning Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) which may already be familiar to experienced IT professionals. The discussion develops to show how, as standards have developed and reached industry-wide acceptance, the technology has also been maturing to the extent that tools, technologies, methodologies and best practice(s) are now available to mitigate risk for SOA adoption. This book helps to de-mystify SOA, supporting the theory with real-world experience to provide practical guidance on how to deliver successful SOA based projects." --Garry Gomersall, SOA Evangelist and Business Executive, IBM Software Group

A pragmatic and hands-on contribution to the evaluation of SOA as an architecture approach to create value for the business. The different views and complete set of IT considerations on SOA are supported by real and convincing examples. Gives a ready-to-use guide to adopt and implement SOA . Just an excellent source for anyone who wants to get to the next level of business and IT alignment based on SOA . --Henrik Jacobsson, Lead IT Architect, Shell

A comprehensive complete guide, thoroughly covering all relevant aspects based on experience and best practices available today. A sound starting point for any organization which believes SOA is not just an other hype and seeks a sustainable SOA implementation. Not "SOA for dummies" but "SOA for professionals"! Read it and you ll see. --Menno Bosman, Information Manager, Fortis Insurance Netherlands

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: IBM, Sogeti (May 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9075414145
• ISBN-13: 978-9075414141
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,096,195 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars SOA for profit: well recommended!, August 13, 2007

By 

Eric Kluyfhout "Eric Kluijfhout" (Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: SOA for Profit, A Manager's Guide to Success with Service Oriented Architecture (Hardcover)

`SOA for Profit: A manager's guide to success with Service Oriented Architecture' is the result of a joint effort by IBM en Sogeti, both leading ICT companies and both comitted to SOA. A first bonus is the book's publication under the Creative Commons Share Alike 3.0 Unported license: its content may be copied and adapted freely, provided the adapted material is published under the same license and references the original.

But there is more to win you over. Scanning the Table of contents shows that indeed the relevant SOA-issues are addressed, starting with the `why' of SOA; next the `what'; the `when', the prerequisites for SOA - your business characteristics, organisation and available human resources; the `how' which is divided into three stages of a SOA life-cycle; and finally the pittfalls. This is concluded with a comprehensive model and survey-tool to self-assess your organisation's SOA maturity level.

This however requires you to study 256 pages of text, case-boxes, tables, figures, checklists, etc., including the introduction and appendices. Therefore the `manager' in the book's subtitle will probably come from the ranks of CIOs, ICT managers, systems architects, and business consultants with an ICT leaning, but not so much from those of CEOs.

The book's overriding message is that SOA should start and end with your business, with technology in a supportive - and not leading - role. Those looking for elaborations on XML, SOAP, WSDL and other such abbreviations therefore will be disappointed: these are not covered by the authors. This by no means implies a `soft' approach to SOA as often found with advocates of the `service oriented approach'. The `hype-level' of the book is low, and the conditions required to indeed realise `SOA for profit' are clearly spelled out: without firm ICT governance SOA will only cost you money; those looking for simpe solutions to complex problems should go elsewhere; SOA is not a `one time activity' but requires long-term committment; if you are not operating in a dynamic, highly competitive environment with a strong ICT-dependency, it may be hard to come up with a convincing business case for SOA ........ To treat SOA mainly as an ICT supplier-issue therefore is considered a viable option for those organisations that do not meet these requirements, as long as this is a conscious decision. But whether actively implemented by the user organisation or through the new generation of products from their ICT suppliers, the authors leave no doubt about the fact that SOA is here to stay.

The least convincing part of the book - surprisingly - covers the attempted integration of IBM's Component Business Modeling approach and Sogeti's Dynamic Enterprise Architecture (DYA) method. This however is more than compensated for by the many practical tips and tools provided in the book. To name a few: the SOA maturity assessment tool mentioned earlier; how to define your most viable SOA projects through a limited number of workshops; and very relevant: what are the crucial questions as a CEO to ask your architect about SOA, and how to prepare for such an event as an architect!

Overall: highly recommended for those who are considering `to go SOA', and for those who have already done so but want to validate their strategy.