Service Oriented Architecture For Dummies®

Chapter 29. Ten SOA No-Nos

In This Chapter

• Choosing the right starting point

• Standing on the shoulders of (SOA) giants

• Watching your back

• Being part of a SOA team

With hundreds of pages in this book to show you what you can do, we thought we'd carve out a few caveats to warn you what not to do so you can benefit from the mistakes of others.

Don't Boil the Ocean

Make sure the SOA project you choose for your starting point is well defined and well confined. Prove SOA successful with something that is small, is achievable in a short time, and will have a significant impact — then build incrementally.

Don't Confuse SOA with an IT Initiative

If you relegate SOA to IT, we, the authors, have failed miserably. We throw up our hands. SOA must be a joint endeavor between business and IT. You have everything to gain — and everything to lose if you persist in such pigheadedness.

Don't Go It Alone

An entire industry is just waiting out there to help you. Don't ignore it. Beg, borrow, steal, but get help. Reinventing the world is definitely anti-SOA thinking.

Don't Think You're So Special

Stick to standards and standard interfaces. The proprietary software you build will be your own downfall. The sooner you part ways from evil temptations, the happier and healthier your software can be. (The happier and healthier your organization will be too, by the way.)

Don't Neglect Governance

SOA governance won't happen by itself. Address it early. SOA governance is as much about the way you work and the processes you ...