ZapFlash: In this Issue Jan 31, 2008
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Sponsored by: BEA, HP, DataDirect, and iTKO.
Why Big Consulting is Hurting SOA
Document ID: ZAPFLASH-2008131 | Document Type: ZapFlashBy: David Linthicum
Posted: Jan. 31, 2008
As larger organizations begin to embark on their Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) projects, there is some misdirecting going on that you should be aware of, which will allow you to make an educated decision as to, not only what you're going to do, but who's going to help you. At issue is the fact that many people in the planning stages for SOA do not get the proper advice and guidance as to how to proceed, or even what a SOA actually is. Thus, the larger tragedy is that many of these projects will hit the wall, and do so with an impact that will reflect poorly on the notion of SOA, when it's not really a SOA issue at all.
First, be wary if consulting organizations point out their experience in the world of SOA by putting up past projects as proof of their experience. Most, if not all, of these past projects are really JBOWS (just a bunch of Web Services) and have no underlying mechanisms to provide agility, which is a core benefit of SOA. The fact is that most end users out there don't know the difference. Always keep in mind that Service-enabling existing systems is useless without a mechanism for turning those Services into solutions.
The problem is that many of people looking to hire SOA consultants don't understand the difference between JBOWS and true SOA, and accept JBOWS as "experience." In reality, it's an indication that the consultants don't understand the core value of SOA, and thus could send you off in all sorts of dangerous and costly directions. So, make sure to hire consultants who understand that SOA is really about architecture, agility, and changeability, and not just about Service enablement. It's easy to expose Services; turning those Services into solutions is another level of sophistication.
Second, many consultants are a bit too chummy with vendors. Thus, you'll find that they implement the same vendors and technology each and every time. This situation should present a huge red flag since SOA problem domains are all very different, and technology solutions that work best for the solution are never, ever, from the same vendor, over and over again. However, when you sell hammers, everything looks like a nail. The path of least resistance is what you know, not what you should do.
People responsible for managing SOA consultants need to state clearly that you are looking for the right solution, not the one they know, or what may be part of an existing partnership. Indeed, you should quickly overlook consulting organizations with many preexisting vendor partnerships. You need folks in there who are agnostic when it comes to technology, and are willing to leverage the best-of-breed to address your issues.
You've heard it all before: technology should add value to a concept like SOA, not control it. Lately ZapThink has run into SOA efforts that are not playing by that rule. Indeed, the focus is on ESBs and governance layers, and not on getting SOA right from an architecture standpoint. I thought SOA was architecture, right?
At issue are the multi-billion dollar marketing budgets that vendors bring to the SOA world, and thus lead through sheer volume of sales. People like ZapThink who promote the architectural value of SOA, are not being heard above the noise and flash of the SOA-in-a-box movement that's occurring all around us. The end state is invariably a failed project, due to the misuse of technology, and project managers who do not understand their own issues before pulling out credit cards and buying technology. Thus, too much focus on technology is hurting SOA.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not attacking the vendors here. That's just too easy. What I am doing is pointing out the fact that technology, while being very powerful and necessary within the world of architecture, needs to occur as an outcome of the architecture, instead of driving it. While most of you will see that as a logical piece of information, it's still a de facto practice to take an "ESB-oriented" approach to SOA, no matter what the issues are at hand, or, perhaps an "App Service-oriented" approach, or a "Governance-oriented" approach, or... Okay, I'll stop.
The result, in many cases, is not something that does not work; it's something that does not work as well as the organization requires. Thus, many companies settle for sub-optimal solutions that they must rework every few years to keep up with business demands, versus solving the problem once and for all, maturing the architecture over the years and not having to keep replacing it.
The correct approach is simple. You start with your core requirements, understanding all aspects of the business, existing Services, existing data, processes, etc., and then create a vision of the end state architecture and a complete, iterative map for getting there. You understand patterns here, not instances of technology, and only then back the correct technology into the problem domain, making sure to meet the core requirements.
Third, there must be a predefined process. While many SOA consultants try to use older software development lifecycle (SDLC) and enterprise architecture processes, SOA requires a specific approach that addresses the unique nature of its architectural patterns. For instance, there is a traditional focus on data, but the data must be properly bound to Services. Moreover, those Services must be properly bound to processes. Plus you need to keep track of all the interdependencies, and how all of this stuff links to SOA governance, SOA security, and event management and monitoring.
Many consultants attempt to oversimplify the process, rapidly moving through or even foregoing the planning steps. Their main focus is the selection of the technology, or, in some cases, they attempt to force fit a problem with a predetermined technology solution. This approach never has a positive outcome.
The fact of the matter is that SOA implementations are complex distributed systems, and thus complex to plan, design, build, and test. The time spent in planning will later pay huge dividends. You should define a rigorous process/methodology that, at a minimum, provides you with a semantic-level, Service-level, and process-level understanding of the problem domain, not to mention the governance model and security strategies. Trust me, you can get SOA right the first time, but with more planning and sweat than you expect.
Finally, there is the lack of understanding about ongoing SOA operations, and links with traditional enterprise architecture. You just can't implement SOA, you have to live with SOA on an ongoing basis, which means understanding how the solution exists currently, and how to align it with business as it changes. If your consultant has done his or her job, you should have an architecture where the volatility has been abstracted into a configurable domain. As a result, it's a matter of changing things at the configuration layer to adjust to the changing nature of the business. Therein lies the value of SOA.
If your architecture does provide that degree of agility, than you're going to have to loop back to the beginning to see where you went wrong. Typically, per my previous point, you're planning was insufficient and perhaps you employed the wrong technology solution. In any event, you need to bite the bullet, spend the money and fix it, or you'll find that your SOA actually takes you backward.
The ZapThink Take
Bad intentions are not the problem here. I think everyone is honestly looking to do their best, but it's a lack of understanding and perhaps talent in some instances. Consultants who succeed with their SOA initiatives have a wide range of skills, a good understanding of architecture and the value of SOA, and all of the good work that needs to occur to make it work for the client. However, I don't see many out there who fit that bill, and the amount of bad advice is becoming a huge issue. Unfortunately, many of their clients won't figure this out until it's too late.
When doing SOA, or another other complex distributed computing problem for that matter, it pays to obtain honest and objective advice. Even if you only need a consultant for validation of key artifacts, approaches, and technology. That's just cheap insurance. Unfortunately, the number of organizations out there calling themselves "SOA consultants" is huge, while the number of consultants that actually know what they are doing is relatively quite small. Thus, most of their clients are finding that the selling around the consulting services was dazzling, but the Services they delivered, and end state solution is typically suboptimal. Indeed, a common trick is to have the "SOA experts" come in a sell the deal and you're left with the kiddies to actually do the work.
The most troubling aspect of all these issues is that most organizations won't understand the impact of leveraging less-than-stellar SOA consultants until it's too late. Indeed, the full impact of the architecture is years, not months away, and selecting the wrong technology, or getting the wrong strategic advice, won't be obvious until it's too late. At least until the checks for the huge fees have cleared the banks, and the consultants are on to their next project.
Next week!
| Hear from Enterprise Architect practitioners from: |
- Looking for Usable Business Case Studies and Value Propositions for SOA?
- Want to learn the latest best practices for making SOA a success?
- Want to hear from successful architects about their SOA efforts?
- Do you want to learn from your peers about what it really takes to put together an SOA?
- Want to take your SOA to the next level?
Then REGISTER TODAY for Practical SOA: Energy & Utilities! - February 5, 2008 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Houston, TX
Sponsored by: BEA, HP, DataDirect, and iTKO.
Get Practical with SOA:
Spend a Day with ZapThink Learning SOA Best Practices
Spend a Day with ZapThink Learning SOA Best Practices
Want to learn the latest best practices for making SOA a success? Want to hear from successful architects about their SOA efforts? Do you want to learn from your peers about what it really takes to put together an SOA? Want to take your SOA to the next level? |
Then REGISTER TODAY for A Practical SOA One-day Seminar!
Unique and unlike any other Service-Oriented Architecture events because the the education is deep, cutting-edge, and highly interactive. Join industry experts and implementation teams just like yours to get the education, career enhancement, and credentials you need! ZapThink has run events just like these throughout the world - attracting dozens of attendees just like you.
Upcoming Practical SOA One-Day Events:
Feb. 5, 2008 - Practical SOA: Energy & Utilities - Houston, TX, USA
Mar. 25, 2008 - Practical SOA: New York - Financial Services, Governance, Quality, & Management - New York, NY, USA
Apr. 22, 2008 - Practical SOA: UK - London, UK
May 16, 2008 - Practical SOA: Insurance - Now Co-located with ACORD/LOMA 2008 in Las Vegas!
ZapCheck: ZapThink's One-Day SOA Quick Assessment and Sanity Check
Then ZapCheck, ZapThink's One-Day SOA Quick Assessment and Sanity Check is for you!Our ZapCheck service leverages a proven checklist-based methodology and architectural assessment approach that aims to provide the following five points of value:
- A clear definition of the ROI of SOA for your enterprise.
- A clear understanding of the right approach to SOA, including high level goals and objectives.
- A clear understanding of key architectural issues and opportunities to facilitate SOA adoption.
- A roadmap of architectural artifacts for enhancing your SOA efforts with established and emerging best practices
- A set of deliverable s for approaching management for funding and sponsorship.
Bridging the Data/Document Divide: How High-Performance Companies Leverage Document-Centric SOA for Competitive Advantage
Speakers: Jason Bloomberg, Managing Partner, ZapThink, Jake Sorofman, VP of Marketing & Business Development, JustSystems, Inc.
Date & Time: February 13, 2008, 2:00 EST
Until now, SOA has had somewhat of a data obsession, focusing on structured and transactional data and processes, rather than documents and document-centric processes. This is now beginning to change, as organizations look to transform their document-based processes using SOA. Data and documents have historically been two worlds divided. Data is stored in relational databases, mainframe systems and data warehouses. Documents are kept in content management systems, shared file servers and local drives. While data focuses on the "what" of business, doc uments focus on the "why" and the "how"-manuals, policies, reports, analysis, etc. The reality is that business is done at the intersection of "what," "why" and "how"-where fact meets context. High performance companies are bringing it all together with SOA, while others only continue the artificial data/document divide-missing opportunities to transform business process and create powerful competitive advantages.
Join this timely and important webinar to learn how the convergence of data and documents in a Service-Oriented Architecture environment can help your enterprise optimize document-centric processes, driving down costs, mitigating risk and dramatically improving business responsiveness. Jason Bloomberg from ZapThink will provide a framework for thinking about the role of documents in SOA planning and implementation, helping you to organize for, and define the critical success factors for your organization. Jason will be joined by Jake Sorofman, VP of Marketing & Business Development at JustSystems, who will bring document-centric SOA to light with case study examples and a discussion on the role of XML and other enabling technologies, including many you've already deployed.
What you'll learn:
- Strategic insights into the emerging role of documents as both an information source and an application framework for SOA
- How to identify document-centric process as candidates for SOA-based transformation
- The principles for an action plan, including a framework for organizing for success
- Case study examples of how document-centric SOA is being leveraged by high performance companies today
Register Today at: https://justsystems.webex.com/justsystems/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=928963092
ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum: Register Today
Online Registration Now OpenOnline registration for the 2008 ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum is now open. You can also make your hotel reservations at Mandalay Bay online from a link on the travel page.
This year's Forum will be Tuesday, May 13 through Thursday, May 15, 2008. Be sure to check back in the new year for session listings and additional information.
Visit the travel page
Visit the registration page
Check Out The Hottest, Latest Podcasts!
| Special ZapThink "Sneak Preview" Podcast for January 24, 2008 features: James Jones, Director, Service-oriented Architecture (SOA), BP Rusty Foreman, DCT Enterprise Architecture, BP Patrick Bhirdo, Endigo Energy Richard Green, Principal Analyst, DTE Energy David Anderson, Solution Architect, BEA Systems, Inc John Michelsen, Founder & Chief Architect, iTKO Dan Finerty, Director, Product Marketing, DataDirect Shadow Jason Bloomberg, Managing Partner, ZapThink
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| ZapForum Podcast for January 11, 2008 features Guest Expert Jake Sorofman, VP of Marketing, JustSystems. Listen to this Podcast and you will:
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| Special ZapThink "Sneak Preview" Podcast for January 8, 2008 features: Ron Schmelzer, Managing Partner, ZapThink Ingo Arnold, Enterprise Systems Architect, Novartis Pharma AG Wolfgang Otto, Principal Systems Engineer, BEA Systems Florian Mösch, Vice President Enterprise Integration & Architecture, T-Mobile Deutschland GmbH Jason English, iTKO, iTKO Dr. Waldemar Lohrer, Senior Berater, Swiss Life Tim Hall, SOA Center Product Management, Hewlett-Packard Lars Drexler, VP Sales Enablement, Software AG
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Click here for more information and to register! | |
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| Jan. 31, 2008 | Why Big Consulting is Hurting SOA | ||||||
| Jan. 25, 2008 | ZapThink Podcast: Practical SOA Energy & Utilities Sneak Peek | ||||||
| Jan. 17, 2008 | Forget Maturity Models – It's Time for an Agility Model | ||||||
| Jan. 14, 2008 | JustSystems: The Document is the Application | ||||||
| Jan. 11, 2008 | ZapForum Podcast: Converging Data & Documents in SOA | ||||||
| Jan. 08, 2008 | ZapThink Podcast: Practical SOA Frankfurt Sneak Peek | ||||||
| Jan. 03, 2008 | ZapThink's 2008 SOA Forecast | ||||||
| Dec. 26, 2007 | ZapForum Podcast: The Management Discipline of SOA | ||||||
| Dec. 14, 2007 | Helping out the SOA Vendors | ||||||
| Dec. 14, 2007 | ZapForum Podcast: How Much SOA Do You Need? | ||||||
| Dec. 10, 2007 | Simplifying SOA | ||||||
| Dec. 03, 2007 | Boomi OnDemand: Integration at the Speed of the Internet | ||||||
| Nov. 30, 2007 | Is your Foundation for Continuous Change a Herman Miller Aeron or a Two-Legged Stool? | ||||||
| Nov. 29, 2007 | How to Define a Business Service | ||||||
| Nov. 28, 2007 | The Seven Levels of Loose Coupling | ||||||
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| Date | Title | |||||||
| Feb. 01, 2008 | Why Some Developers Are Hurting SOA | |||||||
| Jan. 31, 2008 | SOA and the 'Trough of Disillusionment' | |||||||
| Jan. 30, 2008 | SCA and SDO standards | |||||||
| Jan. 30, 2008 | Free White Paper Walks You Through Hazards of SOA Testing | |||||||
| Jan. 29, 2008 | Notes from the Open Group’s 17th Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Conference | |||||||
| Jan. 29, 2008 | SOA Dollars and Sense | |||||||
| Jan. 29, 2008 | Time for a ’stimulus package’ for SOA? | |||||||
| Jan. 29, 2008 | Enterprise mashups, SOA's killer app? | |||||||
| Jan. 28, 2008 | When do you Cancel a SOA Project? | |||||||
| Jan. 28, 2008 | Key Strategies for SOA Testing | |||||||
SOA Implementation Roadmap Poster
SOA Implementation Roadmap Poster
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