Chapter 8. Planning Your ESA Adoption Program and Pilot Projects

Chapter 7 discussed the role that enterprise architecture plays in supporting ESA adoption. Some organizations embrace this concept and build strategic road maps to systematically guide their ESA efforts. Others prefer to dive right into pilot projects using the SAP NetWeaver platform to gain experience with service-oriented infrastructure, development, and integration techniques. Of course, a combination of the two is ideal. Combining strategic planning with some healthy proof points is a great way to increase your chances for success with ESA.

As mentioned many times in this book, no two companies will have the same road map to ESA. Some organizations are initially motivated to look at ESA by their plans to upgrade to mySAP ERP or other Business Suite applications that introduce SAP NetWeaver into the infrastructure. Others have a stronger interest in how SOA can improve the efficiency and effectiveness within IT. And there are those who find that an ESA approach offers the best opportunity to solve a high ROI business problem. No matter why you get started, your organization will face some common challenges in adopting ESA.

There are many good approaches and practices that help in creating and managing an ESA adoption road map. This includes both running the overall program and managing individual pilots and projects. Ultimately, you will have to decide which approach fits best with the way your organization makes ...

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