Service Oriented Architecture Field Guide for Executives

9.1. SOA IS NOT A PANACEA

Contrary to the rhetoric that is floating around the Internet and various conferences, SOA is not a panacea. It is not some sort of magical tonic that is "good for what ails you." Instead, it is a powerful strategy for business and technology alignment and effective componentization of enterprise assets. In Chapter 5, "Is SOA Right for You?," we explored SOA adoption fallacies, several of which addressed this very subject. Upon examining ill-conceived service orientation initiatives across various companies and industries, some obvious patterns emerge. Exhibit 9.1 provides a list of scenarios that should send up red flags with respect to service orientation. It is important to realize that this list represents a huge set of generalizations. Moreover, it is merely an attempt to identify situations in which service orientation might be a bad fit.

Figure 9.1. List of scenarios that identify red flags for SOA

The reality is that there are viable, real-world SOA implementations for each one of the items on the list (many of which the authors of this book have been involved in with various clients). However, for every success story from that list, there are 20 failures. Proceed with caution.