Service Orient or Be Doomed!: How Service Orientation Will Change Your Business

CHAPTER 9

Okay, So Where Do We Start?

It's a good sign you've made it this far in this book, because by now you're probably convinced of the benefits of SOA in the narrow sense, as well as how Service Orientation can be applied more broadly in the organization. But if you work in a large company, you probably feel like a very small cog in a very big wheel—and that wheel either turns in many directions at once or turns very slowly. One problem with Service Orientation, after all, is that it is requires change throughout the enterprise, in the same way that SOA as enterprise architecture affects all aspects of the business. Sure, there are enormous benefits to be gained by moving to SOA, and there's no question that whatever rats' nest of technology you have today will continue to plague your organization until you finally take action. What steps can you take today to do something about it?

Many of the firms that understand the concept of Service Orientation are left with burning questions about how to take the theoretical concept of SOA and put it into practice: “Okay, so where do we start? I get this whole SOA thing, but what do I do when I come into the office tomorrow?” If you're wondering the same thing, then wait no longer. All will be revealed in this chapter.

IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM

The last thing you want to do is boil the ocean. If your company is like most organizations, IT has a wide range of challenges facing it—competitive pressures, inefficient spending, regulatory ...