How not to get confused in SOA?

Business globalization, integration of the companies and creation of the holdings integrating in themselves the structures which are engaged in production, distribution, retail, and using customized applications caused the necessity of establishing accurate and effective communications between components of ERP systems. On the other hand, many companies of small and medium business already faced problems of "scrappy" automation and need to adapt legacy systems in a modern IT environment of the enterprise. In recent years the service-oriented principle of application integration wins the increasing popularity.

The Zapthink company, being the expert in the field of SOA, formulated main advantages from use of service-oriented architecture - it is the increased business functioning speed, reduction of cost of integration of ERP systems, reuse of assets of the enterprise, decrease in business risks and increase in openness of business.

The companies beginning to implement SOA should realize that it is very long process. Full completion of the project can take about 15 years though the first advantages of SOA will become noticeable within 6 months when applications are integrated. However SOA – it is much wider, than just application integration. Assumes service-oriented approach an exception of the duplicated processes and functions, replication setup, the maximum consolidation of everything that it can be joint for all systems. After that integration as such, i.e. creation of communications, is not necessary any more.

The first that needs to be made before implementation of the SOA project is to be convinced that all command including company management, the essence and the expected project deliverables equally imagine. Both technologies, and business processes should be brightened for all application package in general. This process of preproject preparation in itself rather long and difficult.

One more key moment – the choice of the contractor. Not so important, what approach to SOA is selected at implementation – from Oracle, SAP, IBM, Microsoft, or even all together. The main thing - to find the one who implements all this. The choice should be based not only on studying of software products and the services provided by suppliers. The contractor should prove that he will be able to join in throughout all project and in full, turning on both a technology part, and software and even the equipment.

Greg Coticchia, the CEO of LogicLibrary company, formulated seven principles of successful implementation of SOA based on five years' experience of LogicLibrary company.

1. You should not try "boil the ocean", in other words – to embrace the immensity.
It is necessary to think on a substantial scale, however it is better to begin with modest small projects. It is ideal if representatives of three camps – the developer of architecture, the project manager of implementation and the specialist in the specific field of business are involved in the project. The main goal of the first project - to show obvious advantages of SOA. For example, it is possible to process a small set of business processes, having increased their flexibility and efficiency. At the same time it is necessary to trace, measure and record accurately runtime of these processes before implementation of SOA.

2. You correlate your desires and your technical capabilities.
Clear for yourself in what area it is the best of all to involve new services who will use them who will manage them. It is possible to modify 10 of 20 highly specialized services, it will be beautiful, but troublesome and malopolezno. It is necessary to focus on ensuring business flexibility and not to be beyond real specifications. Make sure that your practices accurately are registered and are reliably stored that the scale of the project conforms to your requirements. You should have an opportunity to understand, observe, estimate and manage as those who create your services, and those who use them. Make sure that development process and the created architecture will provide you these opportunities.

3. It is not process or a product, it both at the same time.
Do not postpone implementation of the software product until you do not adjust business process. At first sight, such approach can seem logical, but it is the deadlock. The perfect organization of business process is a utopia, it will never come. On the other hand, you should not undertake automation of process which methodology you badly represent. Select section, understand the principle of its work, and think over steps on implementation of services. At this stage it is worth addressing the help of suppliers of the corresponding services. However do not trust those suppliers who promise you to solve for you all problems with SOA.

Tools will be necessary for you for creation of a basis of future architecture. Many them them are used at software development for a long time - it is integrated development environment (IDE), systems for identification of defects, management systems for requirements, testing automation systems. However the storage of project information which will allow to connect among themselves all these applications should become a key product.

4. Not all services are web services.
Most the companies begin implementation of SOA with web services, but it is not obligatory. The key moment is not use of the Internet, but the choice of section for automation. Web services provide the universal access supplementing other services.

5. Do not rest against standards.
Standards can be discussed infinitely as them great variety is created. The majority uses the XML and SOAP standards, and application of the others depends on a specific objective. Also the standard for UDDI web services is distributed, however its use will lead to the fact that you will be engaged generally in web services, and it is wrong (see item 4)

6. At first sketch, then products
All know that before beginning industrial release of any products, its model is created. This principle is important also for implementation of SOA. However often the companies develop services, without thinking of where and as they will be used. It is an error. The precise plan defining interrelation of all services and tools for their development should be thought over. It is the best of all to use for a start familiar development tools and also to resort to the help of vendors, to rely on the previous experience. But for a start it is always necessary to create the detailed plan, the project.

7. Look before you leap. Or at least just do not forget to measure.
Key point of implementation of SOA is measurement. You should manage services, the nobility who developed them how many them where also by whom they are used, for what and as. You should keep all this under accurate control. Even the small number of the implemented services can cause many problems without the sufficient management at a stage of their development and use.

However there is also other point of view on a problem of use of SOA technology. For example, Ray Vayting in the article claims that not all companies feel real need for application of SOA in the next years. It gives both large, and small business as examples. In particular, economy due to integration of the existing diverse business applications through SOA can be uninteresting to large corporation, instead she can be ready to make investments in implementation of a uniform full-fledged modern ERP system. On the other hand, the aspiration to avoid risky radical reorganization of the settled information infrastructure is peculiar to the small company, and use of web services and other supermodern technologies will not be obligatory critical for its business at all.

Considerable part of the Russian companies using business applications can be carried either to the first, or to the second type from mentioned above. However, according to Sergey Sereda, the analyst of the TAdviser Center, it does not say that the service-oriented architecture will remain in Russia unclaimed. It is just necessary to understand that some areas its application can be justified already now, and process of transition to SOA can quite take place in their a number in the evolutionary way, in process of development of the corresponding information needs of the enterprises.

Where and when SOA is useful already now? It is possible to answer this question doubly. If to speak about the strategy of development for an information system adopted by this or that company, these technologies will be useful or in need of preserving of a part of legacy systems with transition to the new level of technologies today, or at orientation to use of the solutions "best-of-breed". In the first case SOA will give the chance to save own practices, valuable to business, but at the same time will provide the companies a common information space and use of modern technologies. In the second case the company will be able to provide the independence of vendors of the "heavy" systems delivering "all in one" and to guarantee to the information system the maximum flexibility.

On the other hand, it is possible to speak about compliance of use of SOA to business needs. From these positions those companies which actively use functionality of ERPII can advise to think of use of these technologies. If for them use of SCM, SRM and CRM and also B2B is critical, most likely, transition to SOA to them will have a positive impact, and, maybe, and in general will begin an inevitable method to increase the efficiency.

As for the companies which are not resembling under the descriptions formulated above, most likely, it will be more reasonable for them to wait a little and be convinced that the promises distributed by suppliers of SOA successfully are realized. The benefit, they are now given a fine opportunity to learn on others errors.