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Stop the Presses! Gartner’s SOA Business Case Framework is Finally Published!

2008-12-04T01:13:00Z

Stop the Presses! Gartner’s SOA Business Case Framework is Finally Published!

Gartner Blog Network

After over a year in the making, Gartner’s SOA Business Case Framework is now available (to clients or for a fee). I’ve been presenting the framework for over six months now at Gartner events and will again at the AADI event next week but now it is available in writing. As you will see, if you read it, this research provides a very robust framework for building a SOA business case justification. Here is a summary from the note.

“The Gartner SOA business case framework is a tool to assist enterprises in building project-specific SOA business case justifications. The purpose of the framework is to assist enterprises in understanding, identifying and assembling SOA value information to support a business case document with traceability from business value back to the fundamental principles of SOA. We can’t provide a finished SOA business case that will address all your needs, because nobody can, but we can help you to build one.

The framework consists of a few fundamental components: elements, chains, bundle profiles and resulting business justifications. The elements capture fundamental SOA values and cost characteristics. An element falls into one of six categories, including SOA principles, technology costs, technology benefits, business costs, business benefits and business impact. Each element has a descriptive profile that captures relevant SOA applicability, benefits, costs and risk information. The elements are assembled together into chains for end-to-end traceability from SOA principles to business impact. The chains are grouped into bundles that address the SOA project in its entirety. The bundle assembles a group of relevant elements (and their associated profiles) into a business case justification that serves as the foundation for a complete business case document.”

Anthony Bradley: Stop the Presses! Gartner’s SOA Business Case Is Finally Published!

SOURCE: Gartner Blog Network

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Optimizing the Enterprise for SOA: From Project Management to Program Management to the "Network Organization" - SOA Magazine

2008-11-17T12:08:00Z

Optimizing the Enterprise for SOA: From Project Management to Program Management to the "Network Organization"

SOA Magazine

Abstract: SOA addresses enterprise requirements to rapidly respond to changes in business requirements, processes and policies, and continual changes to commercial technologies and implementations. SOA accomplishes this by adoption across heterogeneous enterprises and environments, enabling information sharing, rapid evolution and change to applications, increased investment reuse, and the elimination of duplicative effort. The price for attaining these advantages is that the enterprise, no matter how large or complex, must be unified and uncover, define, and persistently evolve governance (including management, security, and quality) across intricate, often politically charged, environments.

To achieve the benefits of SOA, enterprises must realize that traditional approaches to IT project management (where a project is considered in isolation, requirements are defined, and budgets are allocated) can no longer work. This article explores why the shift to treating IT as a continually evolving asset must occur. We describe why a radical change from traditional IT project management to program management and organization must be made and we conclude by introducing the concept of the "Network Organization".

Optimizing the Enterprise for SOA: From Project Management to Program Management to the "Network Organization"

SOURCE: SOA Magazine

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Service-Oriented Architecture For Apps Dev And Program Management Pros

2008-08-19T00:11:00Z

Topic Overview: Service-Oriented Architecture For Apps Dev And Program Management Pros

For a single, isolated solution delivery project, it's OK to think of service-oriented architecture (SOA) as just Web services (WS) standards for better application integration: Your application needs something from another one, and WS technology bridges the boundaries. However, across a portfolio of solutions, this view of SOA breaks down and can easily result in siloed, point-to-point Web services that solve only short-term, project-level problems. Longer-term application delivery benefits from SOA — for example, reduced time-to-market and lower development costs — require cross-project, portfolio-level strategy and planning. SOA is proven in the market — for the past three years, 70% of current SOA users have said they will do more SOA — but getting it right requires developers to step back and ensure that they truly understand how to think correctly about what SOA is and how it will add value.

For the Research Report:

Service-Oriented Architecture For Apps Dev And Program Management Pros

SOURCE: Forrester Research
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Project-Oriented SOA - SOA Magazine

2008-08-12T12:07:00Z

Project-Oriented SOA

Abstract: "Projects are the lifeblood of an IT department. Almost everything in IT is measured through a project lens. SOA, due to its global-centric nature, is often viewed as incompatible with project-based software delivery lifecycles. Thus, most companies find themselves with the dilemma of how to effectively advance an SOA initiatives and continue to deliver projects at the same time.

The solution is to combine service lifecycle management, architecture, SOA governance, funding, and SOA metrics into a single comprehensive program. The ultimate goal is to ensure that through addressing project needs services are being effectively designed and implemented and that leverage takes place and is verifiable and that the overall SOA program objectives are being achieved. This article introduces an effective technique for moving your SOA program forward through an incremental, project-based approach."

For the complete article:

http://www.soamag.com/I21/0808-2.asp

SOURCE: SOA Magazine
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Only 1 in 5 SOA Projects Actually Succeed

2008-07-26T22:24:00Z

Only 1 in 5 SOA Projects Actually Succeed

Despite its growing popularity and constant improvements in SOA technology, according to SOA survey done by Barton’s group Anne Thomas Manes,

...in-depth studies of 20 companies found a 50% complete failure rate, while another 30% were considered neither successful nor wholly failed... Many of them had deployed multiple successful projects, but most of those projects were focused on just one integration problem. It was just a bunch of Web services... The service is only built for one application and it’s never going to be used again

For the complete article:

http://www.infoq.com/news/2008/07/Only1

SOURCE: InfoQ

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

IT RESOURCE NETWORK

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A Program Management Methodology for SOA - SOA Magazine

2008-04-21T12:13:00Z

A Program Management Methodology for SOA

Abstract: Program management is a key part of any successful IT project. With SOA, the management of a "program of related projects" is often required when carrying out larger adoption initiatives. But even when your SOA project revolves around just a single solution, the management of the delivery of that solution should be part of a formal program.

In this article we describe a disciplined program management methodology [REF-1] for organizations attempting SOA projects. The approaches discussed are complementary to and build upon many established project management methodologies.

As part of the research carried out for this article, we analyzed 15 Fortune 10-1000 firms, with a focus on service deployment, integration of process and services architecture, and required organizational restructuring. Our findings confirm that organizations leading SOA projects with procedural and business requirements have more success than those leading their projects with technical functionality. (The results of this study are provided at the end of this article.)

For the complete article:

http://www.soamag.com/I17/0408-3.asp

SOURCE: SOA Magazine

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

IT RESOURCE NETWORK

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A New Foundation: SOA Implementation for Business Transformation

2008-04-20T20:32:00Z

A New Foundation: SOA Implementation for Business Transformation

"It wasn't just small changes that Wachovia's Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) division was eyeing when it first looked to deploy a service-oriented architecture (SOA). Rather, it was a total transformation resulting from a mandate from the division's head to create a business-aligned IT group, according to Tony Bishop, SVP and director of product management for the CIB technology group."

A New Foundation: SOA Implementation for Business Transformation

SOURCE: Wall Street Technology

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

IT RESOURCE NETWORK

THE BPM NETWORK | THE SAAS NETWORK | THE SOA NETWORK | THE WEB 2.0 NETWORK

Five Rules for Development-time SOA Governance

2007-05-10T14:20:00Z

Five Rules for Development-time SOA Governance
by Dr. Kelly Shaw, an analyst with Serina Software

These rules will help you reduce the risk of failed SOA initiatives.

Rule #1: The requirements for SOA-based development projects should focus first and foremost on the delivered applications, not the services.

Rule #2: Services should be re-used, re-factored, used from a third party where appropriate and built new only as a last resort.

Rule #3: Services need to be delivered with a comprehensive set of unit tests.

Rule #4: Always perform consumption-side tests before deploying a service into production.

Rule #5: Separate your production deployments from your consumption deployments.

For the complete article:

Five Rules for Development-time SOA Governance

SOURCE: Enterprise Systems

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

Roles for Maintenance and Evolution of SOA-Based Systems

2007-04-08T13:18:00Z

Roles for Maintenance and Evolution of SOA-Based Systems

Development, evolution and maintenance of SOA-based systems demands rethinking of the traditional system evolution and maintenance roles. The key objective of this paper is to present preliminary ideas on the roles required for maintenance and evolution of SOA-based systems and to suggest areas of needed research.

Roles for Maintenance and Evolution of SOA-Based Systems

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

Project Manager Survival Kit

2007-03-27T01:28:00Z

Project Manager Survival Kit

Software Project Management Tools: IBM's project manager survival kit provides useful tools, reviews, and tips including whitepapers and webcasts. Learn simple techniques to make software project management easier so you can create the best software products.

Discover how the IBM Software Development Platform can help you move your projects forward, move your bosses to cheers, and move you up the ladder to greater success. Insights and advice abound in this exclusive kit for project managers like yourself.

IBM created this Project Manager Survival Kit to cover important topics that can affect the success of any software project. It now includes the new Buyer's Guide to Software Development for the On Demand Enterprise as well as easy-to-digest white papers and informative Webcasts. Learn how the IBM Software Development Platform can give you the tools, services and best practices for success from start to finish, at every stage.

Get the Project Manager Survival Kit here

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

Teaming up for SOA

2007-03-10T14:33:00Z

Teaming up for SOA

"Most organizations start down the road to SOA with a pilot project of some kind. The result is often a great technology learning experience and a handful of useful services upon which a related set of apps can be built and modified easily. But an isolated project seldom builds the skills needed to persuade multiple groups to collaborate on broader SOA development."

SOURCE: ComputerWorld

For the complete ComputerWorld Article:

Teaming up for SOA

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How to succeed with SOA

2007-02-27T12:03:00Z

How to succeed with SOA

"The ability of service-oriented architecture to rapidly assemble new applications and orchestrate multiple solutions comes from a commitment to reuse. But for that to work, it must be implemented enterprisewide, say the three internationally known, former META Group analysts.

The common approach of implementing SOA on a project-by-project basis fails to mandate the basic changes in development procedure that SOA requires. Developers may implement the standards that SOA has largely co-opted from the Internet, but they are free to reinvent existing services rather than reusing what already exists."

For the complete ComputerWorld Article:

SOURCE: ComputerWorld

How to succeed with SOA

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Best practices of the SOA Development Lifecycle - SearchWebServices

2007-02-21T00:28:00Z

Best practices of the SOA Development Lifecycle

"For example, in your SDLC process your goal is to have an automated mechanism by which people check things in and automatically do builds, and automatically do tests," she answered. "If you actually implement governance and compliance testing as part of those processes, then the development team doesn't have to do anything extra. They are simply following their standard process. Yet at the same time you're doing compliance testing. And you can feed information directly back to the developers saying 'You might have violated a couple policies here. Here's the recommended approach to resolve that.' "

SOURCE: SearchWebServices

Best practices of the SOA development lifecycle

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SOA the Easy Way (If That’s Possible)

2007-02-16T16:43:00Z

SOA the Easy Way (If That’s Possible)

In a research report about getting started with Service Oriented Architecture, Forrester analyst Randy Heffner warned that SOA strategy “carries heavy risks of being overly theoretical and academic.”

That is undoubtedly true, as plenty of companies have learned. Attempting to implement a ‘grand vision’ for SOA can be unwieldy enough to swamp the enterprise in myriad complexities.

For many companies, the question becomes: how can we realize the promise of SOA without developing and following an exhaustive 400-page platform plan?

In the word, Heffner says, the concept to keep in the forefront is “evolutionary.”

Along with keeping your approach evolutionary as opposed to revolutionary, Heffner recommends two key tenets in developing your SOA infrastructure:

1) Let the pain drive SOA investments. Service Oriented Architecture is a means to an end, Heffner notes – it’s not an end in itself. Focusing on the “pain point” – the very real problem that needs to be fixed – helps engender a productive conversation within the business that’s less likely to get bogged down in theory.

2) Use street-level strategy to tie near-term implementation to long-term vision. Notes Heffner in his report: “Rather than trying to decide upfront on a myriad of SOA strategy issues (e.g. repository strategy, enterprise service bus (ESB), SOA management), create a lightweight strategy that outlines and structures the range of SOA issues without deciding on specific answers to any of them.” In other words, a “street-level” strategy is one that stays loose – it has a direction but it’s not tied down. It’s ruled by pragmatic concerns that can change over time.

SOURCE: Datamation

SOA the Easy Way (If That’s Possible

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

Automation: A New Imperative for SOA Application Success - SOA World Magazine

2007-02-05T20:17:00Z

Automation: A New Imperative for SOA Application Success

"For several years, software vendors have been creating development and infrastructure products for the latest IT architecture style - Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Recognizing the immense value SOA can bring to IT, companies like BEA, IBM, and Microsoft have delivered products to help customers design and build SOA-based applications. These vendor-driven initiatives are beginning to sprout actual customer-developed applications that are built on the promise of SOA, such as better flexibility, agility and reuse."

Service Oriented Architecture is a powerful concept. It allows IT organizations and their related business organizations to work more efficiently. SOA applications will be more prevalent and managing them will remain critical. There are specific steps organizations can take to make SOA management work for them:

1) Make management a priority: Management shouldn't be an afterthought. Make sure that it's budgeted for when pulling together SOA projects - both in time and money.

2) Make a new decision: Managing SOA is a new problem, one that deserves true evaluation. You might decide to use one of your existing APM vendors, but don't just write them in. SOA presents unique challenges that existing tools find difficult to solve.

3) Start small: SOA is a change in philosophy that creates barriers to success. Don't add more by trying to run multiple applications out of the gate. Like other technology breakthroughs, your chances of success increase when dealing with a single problem.

4) Assume nothing: Don't assume that what you deploy is architected and coded like you designed it. Get runtime information to help determine what the real architecture looks like.

5) Communicate, communicate, communicate! Involve all of the key stakeholders and often. It's important for executives to see the value in the project, for line-of-business managers to see that their applications will run better, for IT management to see efficient operations, and for developers to see innovation. Keep them all in the loop from start to finish.

SOURCE: SOA World Magazine

View Article:

Automation: A New Imperative for SOA Application Success

Print Article:

http://soa.sys-con.com/read/329806_p.htm

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

'First, do no harm,' guides Marriott SOA plans - SearchWebServices

2007-02-05T18:48:00Z

'First, do no harm,' guides Marriott SOA plans

T"he MBO approach to the business side starts with the COO and CIO and includes all levels of management. While IT notoriously faces difficulty communicating the value of SOA to business people, Whitridge offered a list of tips for bridging the chasm. To get the point across in meetings, he said he found it is important to make sure the list of objectives IT offers to the business side:

Is simple to understand and communicate
Ensures ability to set goals and measure them
Articulates what we have accomplished, what we are working on and what we have deferred
Includes organization and process – not just technology
Provides the business with realistic and affordable options
Avoids "over commit and under deliver"
Eliminates "boil the ocean" or "big bang" efforts "

SOURCE: SearchWebServices

'First, do no harm,' guides Marriott SOA plans

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

SOA Projects Need to Be Systematic, Exec Says - ComputerWorld

2007-02-05T14:48:00Z

SOA Projects Need to Be Systematic, Exec Says

"Over the past nine years, Con-way Inc.’s SOA has evolved into an event-driven architecture that lets computer systems subscribe to, publish and process “events” — such as the receipt of an order — based on predefined business rules. Maja Tibbling, Con-way’s lead enterprise architect, discussed the SOA’s development in an interview with Computerworld at last week’s Open Group conference.

SOURCE: ComputerWorld

SOA Projects Need to Be Systematic, Exec Says

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

Best Practices for SOA Management - IBM

2007-02-03T13:59:00Z

Best Practices for SOA Management

SOA Management provides best practices and software for managing and monitoring SOA composite applications and supporting infrastructure.

IBM Redbooks | Best Practices for SOA Management

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

SOA Project Staffing Plan...Here are some Rough Guidelines - InfoWorld

2007-01-31T16:10:00Z

SOA Project Staffing Plan...Here are some Rough Guidelines

David Linthicum outlines the Who, What and How Many for a SOA Project.

SOA Project Staffing Plan...Here are some Rough Guidelines

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

The Incremental Approach to SOA - NetManage

2007-01-30T15:18:00Z

The Incremental SOA - NetManage

NetManage Incremental SOA is a flexible and effective four-step methodology for understanding, planning and modeling legacy-based services and delivering maximum value from your SOA projects.

The solution is Incremental SOA
What is Incremental SOA? It is a sensible, phased, low-risk approach for creating an SOA for your organization. Download the white paper today and you’ll learn about the 4 critical steps for success with SOA.

Download the white paper

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

The New SOA Opportunity - Sandhill Group

2007-01-17T13:39:00Z

The New SOA Opportunity

New customer research indicates that SOA adoption may be slower than expected. Vendors can capitalize by stepping up with expertise, governance and improved offerings.

Services-oriented architecture (SOA) is a far greater challenge than most companies realized when they began to adopt and deploy SOA. Rework, failed projects, and immature technologies have characterized many early user enterprise SOA deployments. Moreover, users often confuse such typical project benefits as application integration with the true, longer-term benefits of SOA, such as more responsive and agile application architectures and reuse of services.

A core driver of these challenges is a lack of IT and SOA planning and governance among user business and IT management. The results for user enterprises include increased complexities and costs, and dramatically reduced SOA benefits. The results for vendors are too-often frustrated and disappointed customers.

In order to help deliver SOA success, today’s software companies need to accept the reality of current SOA deployments and capitalize on the opportunity to offer appropriate products, governance and expertise.

SOURCE: Sandhill Group

Read more >>

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Gary E. Smith
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THE SOA NETWORK - Resources for SOA

2007-01-17T00:36:00Z

THE SOA NETWORK

The SOA Network

www.soanetwork.net

The SOA Blog Network

www.soablognetwork.com

SOA Book Network

www.soabooks.net

SOA Developer Network

www.soadeveloper.net

SOA Training Network

www.soatraining.org

SOA Career Network

www.soahotjobs.com

SOA Architect

www.soaarchitect.org

SOA Enterprise Architect

www.soaenterprisearchitect.org

SOA Network Architect

www.soanetworkarchitect.com

SOA Security Architect

www.soasecurityarchitect.com

SOA Identity Architect

www.soaidentityarchitect.com

SOA Governance Architect

www.soagovernancearchitect.com

SOA Test Architect

www.soatestarchitect.com

SOA Telecom Architect

www.soatelecomarchitect.com

SOA Project Manager

www.soaprojectmanager.com

SOA Business Analyst

www.soabusinessanalyst.com

AON Network Architect

www.aonnetworkarchitect.com

SONA Network Architect

www.sonanetworkarchitect.com

GRID Network Architect

www.gridnetworkarchitect.com

THE BPM NETWORK

BPM Blog Network

www.bpmblognetwork.com

BPM Architect

www.bpmarchitect.com

Business Process Architect

www.businessprocessarchitect.com

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

Efficient IT Shops: Two Trends Foreseen - CIO Magazine

2007-01-16T02:45:00Z

Efficient IT Shops: Two Trends Foreseen

CIOs continue to be under pressure to effectively utilize technology to enable businesses while containing costs, but IT’s ever-increasing portion of total capital expenditures shows what a pipe dream this is. Nonetheless, the challenge is slowly but surely being addressed by service-oriented architecture (SOA) and lean principles-two of the best management tools in a long time to control IT costs and make IT more effective.

A recent McKinsey & Company survey of 72 CIOs and other senior IT executives from North American companies with annual revenues of at least $500 million confirmed two trends we have seen in our consulting work. First, nearly two-thirds of respondents plan to migrate to SOA in 2007. SOA is already bringing organizations major benefits: large reductions in development time, lower maintenance and other operating costs, and greater flexibility to change business processes. For example, one global financial services firm has saved about 12,000 person-days in system-development time after adopting SOA and providing developers with a set of services from which they can write applications.

SOURCE: CIO Magazine

CIO Magazine

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

Selling SOA to the CEO - ITBusinessEdge

2007-01-11T16:21:00Z

Selling SOA to the CEO

SOA will be huge again this year. Sticking points are still testing, performance and security. The difference is that big vendors won't be bickering about SOAP, XML and WSDL. Moreover, CEOs are warming up to the idea of SOA, so be prepared to explain it in laymen's terms, with analogies to ordering a credit check, perhaps. Throwing in the fact that implementing SOA is a top cost-cutting measure won't hurt either. One firm reportedly saved 12,000 person-days in development tasks with SOA. Once the CEO is convinced, some suggest that using two development teams (one to expose functionality and one to deal with user interfaces and business processes) is your best bet for improving efficiency.

CEOs Warming to SOA :: Technology Evaluation Centers

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

Managing Service Development - Todd Biske

2007-01-09T21:30:00Z

Managing Service Development - Todd Biske

"What is a project manager’s primary concern? Well, it could be one of three things: delivering the solution as defined (scope), delivering the solution on time (schedule), or delivering the solution on budget (resources). Based on my own experience, the one thing that will drive a project manager nuts is when you add scope. Adding scope either lengthens the schedule or adds cost, both of which are probably the thing that the PM’s performance is being judged against. Most PMs I know aren’t evaluated on their ability to deliver what was promised, they are evaluated on whether dates were met and costs were controlled."

Managing Service Development

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

SOA Project Overview – Building Composites – Roles and Skills by Oleg Figlin

2007-01-09T21:17:00Z

SOA Project Overview – Building Composites – Roles and Skills by Oleg Figlin

"One of the first and most challenging steps in your SOA Project is to build the project team with required resources and skill; you need to identify who is involved in the SOA project. SAP can provide you will Platform, applications on top of this platform; various development tools required for building Composite Applications but we still need people intervention in order to make the process working. Less and Less people intervention required in order to make it working but let's leave it to the separate discussion.

More and more organisations are interesting in building their SOA roadmap and moving forward into the implementation phase. At the end of the day, this is what makes their business more competitive and agile. Unfortunately, most companies do not have enough skills yet in order to move forward with their SOA vision and most of them think that a lot time requiredto up-skill and train the people. To appropriately structure an SOA project, you need to consider that these roles might need to evolve to match the SOA concept or even create some new roles that did not exist before. I personally believe that this process can be done quite easily if you select the right approach and strategy."

SOURCE: SAP Developer Network

SOA Project Overview – Building Composites – Roles and Skills

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

SOA Reality Comes in Three Waves - Saugatuck Research

2007-01-04T22:52:00Z

SOA Reality Comes in Three Waves - Saugatuck Research

This is an excellent report on putting SOA in perspective by letting you know where the present state of adoption is at - both from a customers' and vendors' perspective; and how you should proceed to recoup the benefits of SOA.

You can check out more information on this report and how to order it at:

http://soagovernancearchitect.com/2007/01/04/soa-reality-comes-in-three-waves--saugatuck-research.aspx

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

What Everyone Needs to Know About SOA - ECommerce Times

2007-01-04T20:04:00Z

What Everyone Needs to Know About SOA - ECommerce Times

From a project management perspective, SOA presents additional risks to project success. Legacy applications mean legacy application owners and an increase in political risk. How are you going to get all these departments to work together effectively? IBM predicts that the services related to SOA over the coming years will dwarf the software and hardware purchases.

What Everyone Needs to Know About SOA

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

Accelerating the Delivery of Software Projects - IONA

2006-12-28T16:52:00Z

Accelerating the Delivery of Software Projects

Learn how IONA's Project Accelerator Program combines computer science principles and document management, compressing software development schedules and improving the quality and completeness of delivered systems.

Accelerating the Delivery of Software Projects

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

Human Services Bus Stays Human - Norbert Bieberstein

2006-12-22T16:38:00Z

Human Services Bus Stays Human by Norbert Bieberstein

IBM thought leader opts for an enterprise organization that works like a service-oriented IT architecture

Service-oriented architectures (SOA) can act as a pattern for flexible format to organize the enterprise. However humans should not be regarded as error-prone services, but be treated as intelligent service providers and consumers in the organization.

Since introduction of SOA as predominant architecture of modern IT infrastructure there are new options to organize your enterprise. This impacts the whole enterprise – professionals of all kind as well managers. If you seriously follow the SOA idea then you offer all services in the enterprise in a flexible way, you have to set up rules and regulations to guarantee effective and efficient operations.

In order to automate business processes you can imagine business process models that are directly derived to executable programs. In this approach one speaks of human interaction. This implies humans acting as units in automated processes and controlled like programs.

The individual appears simply as an operational part that is integrated via task lists or portals. Business processes follow business needs and determine – as it seems – enterprise operations. Following this thought you see the individuals lined up along a service bus and provide services as demanded.

But the human being is not to regard in such a passive role alone. Everybody in this Human Services Bus ( HSB ) structure is entitled to demand services and contribute to the business results. There are IT means that support the collaboration, tool ranging from simple e-mail to web2.0 elements. The cooperation on the HSB means an organization form that suits best to an SOA. Each individual in the whole enterprise is seen and acting as a service provider and service consumer.

Triggers to start a work chain can be external requirements, e.g. customer demands. Within a HSB organization in a service-oriented IT infrastructure and equipped with state-of-the-art collaborative tools most administrational intermediate or mediating steps can become obsolete, if there all business rules are well-defined and implemented. These regulations and rules can be designed as SOA lifecycle model, be proven and tested, refined and changed according the needs and insight gained during execution.

In this context management is asked to take a rather monitoring, analytical and rules defining role. The type “big boss” is less required here. Most decisions within the HSB-organized enterprise are covered by rules that are known to everybody and applicable to the given situation. Support in concrete cases is assured via the HSB. Successes and costs are monitored immediately by various measurement tools e.g. in a business dash board. Failures are quickly detected and can lead to immediate changes in the model, the rules and regulations etc.

The self-regulating organization

Operation in such an organization becomes a self-regulating system where humans are not seen as programmable units. It allows – analogous to the SOA services repository – to play out the individual strengths, talents, skills, and even temperaments of the professionals. All of that can be registered for everybody else’s knowledge so that human resources can be utilized as flexibly as possible.

However, as always, not all employees are willing to fit into this new system. Some people show aversion towards innovation and wont adopt new styles of working and cooperation. Especially in some IT departments you encounter the NIH (Not Invented Here) syndrome. Finally one can build any system with the given tools and acquired skills, rather the individual genius can build software to do anything. So foreign solutions are not trusted easily, but developed by one self. Sociologists prove that such resisting people – not alone in IT departments, but you meet them generally in the enterprise – are never the majority. Many people just wait and cautiously adopt innovation. Real laggards are a very small minority.

In order to change the enterprise towards such an organization model and to get it operating as desired there is the need to find the right projects and convincing protagonists. As shown by various scientific and practical research success drags success, people follow the innovators, when they demonstrate advantages for the individual. A proven mean to help emphasize this change process is to set up incentive patterns that support reuse or individual contribution to business successes.

People do not disturb SOA based enterprises. Just the opposite is the case: the individual employee becomes the central agent of the agile enterprise, and agent that helps the organization to compete on the global market, the globalized economy. Introducing new freedom by such a flexible IT infrastructure and providing all these collaborative tools also means that many non-productive, merely administrative tasks can be reduced and more work is directly done to achieve business success, adding to the bottom line.

Norbert Bieberstein
EIS - SOA Advanced Technologies,
IBM Software Group
Strategic Technical Evangelism

This article was recently published by Computerzeitung.

Norbert Bieberstein co-authored the book Service-Oriented Architecture Compass, Business Value, Planning, and Enterprse Roadmap. This book kept #1 selling position of over 100 SOA titles at B&N for a full year.

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

Typical SOA Development Takes 3-6 Months - eWeek

2006-12-20T15:06:00Z

Typical SOA Development Takes 3-6 Months

"These findings and the productivity increases indicated in the findings come as developers are adopting Microsoft's .Net and Java for SOA development almost equally, with both camps growing. In addition, over the last two years, the total number of companies with more than 40 Web services in production has doubled, and that number is expected to double once again in the next twelve months, Evans Data officials said. "

Survey: Typical SOA Development Takes 3-6 Months

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

SOA Development: The New Wild West - Enterprise Systems

2006-12-15T22:56:00Z

SOA Development: The New Wild West

The technical community has been abuzz about SOA for a while, but this past year we have been especially vocal. A casual glance through prominent vendors’ Web sites shows they have been flooding the media with SOA propaganda. Their message is clear: SOA Now! Don’t get left behind! And, by the way, buy tools, tools, tools from us, us, us!

Organizations have been inundated with articles, alerts, and Webinars this past year, and it wouldn’t be surprising to learn that some have jumped into SOA the same way some tried to cash in on the dot-com frenzy without first understanding the why and how behind the technology.

For the complete Enterprise Systems Article:

Enterprise Systems | SOA Development: The New Wild West

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

SOA Development Survival Guide - IBM

2006-12-06T17:36:00Z

Implementing an Service Oriented Architecture project does not have to be so difficult and overwhelming. This SOA Development Survival Guide contains helpful resources for project managers and architects - including webcasts, whitepapers and evaluation software - designed to ease the burden, deepen understanding and accelerate SOA development projects

IBM – SOA Development Survival Guide (Registration Required)

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

WEBINAR - Change Management - Linking Development and Deployment

2006-12-04T12:02:00Z

MKS invites you to participate in this topical webinar featuring leading industry analyst firm, Gartner:

Change Management Battles Complexity — Linking Development and Deployment
Wednesday, December 6, 2006, 2 pm - 3 pm (EST)

Join Jim Duggan, Gartner Research Vice President for Application Development, who will discuss strategies to help companies successfully implement and master IT change management.

With mature IT change management capabilities, any IT organization can radically improve quality of service, reduce efficiency drag and hone risk identification from AD to IT operations.

Duggan will also speak to the hurdles to successful execution of IT change management which arise around policy refinement, organization-wide adherence and integration with mature configuration management capabilities.

If you are an AD or IT Operations leader seeking to:

Justify increased investment in change and configuration management;
Develop a sound change and configuration tools portfolio; and
Identify the top best practices you need to implement to master change and configuration management,

...this event should be on your calendar.

Jim Duggan
Research Vice President for Application Development,

The Perfect Storm - Redmond Developer

2006-11-23T14:37:00Z

The Perfect Storm

In response to growing need for collaboration and portfolio management, you can expect to see a real push toward IT governance across development and deployment. Automated tools are moving in that direction as well. The upshot? Over the next 12 to 36 months, application developers and planners should shift processes to plan more broadly across the entire IT portfolio.

For the completer Redmond Developer Article:

Portfolio Expert

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

Managing SOAs with Application Lifecycle Mgt - WhitePaper

2006-10-09T16:34:00Z

Managing Service Oriented Architectures with Application Lifecycle Management

"With software project failures continuing to plague IT organizations, management needs to improve control over departmental activities ranging from project planning, project execution, development and IT operations. Yet it is difficult to achieve this control if the data is scattered throughout dozens of diverse tools supported by disparate processes.

Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) is an approach to bridge these challenges by enabling IT to be more adaptable to the business. This white paper discusses the key management challenges surrounding SOA adoption and how application lifecycle management (ALM) can provide a comprehensive management platform for SOA transformation, adoption and ongoing administration, ultimately reducing the complexity of SOA deployments. "

Register for this Whitepaper:

http://www.mks.com/press/event_instance_register.jsp?showblankfields=true&event_inst_id=17316&event_type_id=1828

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

Turn Your SOA Projects Into Lasting Business Success With Higher-Value Services - IBM WebCast

2006-09-27T20:42:00Z

SOA Demystified! Turn Your SOA Projects Into Lasting Business Success With Higher-Value Services

Webcast Details

Title:
SOA Demystified! Turn Your SOA Projects Into Lasting Business Success With Higher-Value Services

Featured Speakers:
Robert LeBlanc
General Manager, Application & Integration Middleware Division
IBM WebSphere

Judith Hurwitz
President and CEO
Hurwitz Group, Inc.

Date:
Monday, October 9, 2006

Time:
11:00 AM Eastern
8:00 AM Pacific
16:00 PM BST
17:00 PM CEST

Duration:
1 Hour

Get more details.

Register to have instant access to these valuable resources:

WebSphere Webcasts
SOA Webcasts

SOA Demystified! Turn Your SOA Projects Into Lasting Business Success With Higher-Value Services
Register

Leading companies, like Norwich Union have gained "Dramatic returns on their initial SOA investment" and are now pushing forward to make SOA their "platform for the future." However, many others are still wondering how to translate SOA project success into bigger wins for their business. By working with IBM, the #1 SOA market share leader, you can leverage the cumulative experience of more than 2,500 SOA customer engagements to deliver higher-value business services to your organization.

Join an open dialogue with Robert LeBlanc, General Manager of IBM SOA & WebSphere, as he leads this Webcast discussing IBM's new SOA initiatives and how they have helped organizations combine and build on SOA projects to deliver business success that stands the test of time. Accompanying Robert will be leading analyst Judith Hurwitz, President and CEO of Hurwitz Group and author of SOA for Dummies.

Register today for your chance to receive a complimentary copy of SOA for Dummies—IBM Edition.

Join this Webcast to learn:

How you can build on SOA project successes to achieve new levels of business value and innovation
How organizations have leveraged SOA to achieve greater visibility, agility, efficiency and governance of their business
How Business Process Management has evolved to provide the ability to model, monitor and redesign processes for competitive improvement, complementing SOA to facilitate "managed flexibility"
How SOA solutions from IBM enable you to leverage your IT investment and reuse existing IT assets as well as integrate them with new and existing services in a customized solution that best fits your specific business and technology requirements
How new SOA governance solutions enable you to implement strong governance policies that result in higher profits and increased shareholder value

IBM is excited to include you in the launch of these new and exciting features of our SOA products. Our range of solutions helps you adapt your IT systems quickly, easily and economically to support your rapidly changing business needs. You'll get the information you need to begin or evolve your SOA for maximum business value.
Register.

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

Blog of Interest - Steve Jones

2006-09-23T15:16:00Z

Excellent Blog on Service-Oriented Architecture and Steve talks about SOA Project Management. Here is one of his blogs specifically related to SOA Project Management:

SOA Project Management - killing Waterfall one step at a time

http://service-architecture.blogspot.com/2006/03/soa-project-management-killing.html

http://service-architecture.blogspot.com/

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

NEW BLOG - "SOA Business Analyst"

2006-09-21T12:54:00Z

Coming Soon! - SOA Business Analyst

I will be adding a new blog focusing SOA Business Analysis called SOA Business Analyst which will focus on the analysis, and modelling in SOA Environments.

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

SOA Practitioners' Guide from BEA

2006-09-20T17:56:00Z

DEV2DEV

SOA Practitioners’ Guide

"SOA is relatively new, so companies seeking to implement it cannot tap into a wealth of practical expertise. Without a common language and industry vocabulary based on shared experience, SOA may end up adding more custom logic and increased complexity to IT infrastructure, instead of delivering on its promise of intra and inter-enterprise services reuse and process interoperability. To help develop a shared language and collective body of knowledge about SOA, a group of SOA practitioners created this SOA Practitioners' Guide series of documents. In it, these SOA experts describe and document best practices and key learnings relating to SOA, to help other companies address the challenges of SOA.

The guide is available in three parts:

SOA Practitioners Guide Part 1—Why Services-Oriented Architecture? This guide provides a high-level summary of SOA.
SOA Practitioners Guide Part 2—This guide covers the SOA Reference Architecture, which provides a worked design of an enterprise-wide SOA implementation with detailed architecture diagrams, component descriptions, detailed requirements, design patterns, opinions about standards, patterns on regulation compliance, standards templates and potential code assets from members.
SOA Practitioners Guide Part 3—This guide introduces the Services Lifecycle and provides a detailed process for services management though the service lifecycle, from inception through to retirement or repurposing of the services. It also contains an appendix that includes organization and governance best practices, templates, comments on key SOA standards, and recommended links for more information."

Article

Downloads:

Download the SOA Practioner's Guide Part 1 (PDF, 476K).
Download the SOA Practioner's Guide Part 2 (PDF, 1.2M).
Download the SOA Practioner's Guide Part 3 (PDF, 951K).

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

The Dark Side Of SOA - InformationWeek

2006-09-19T00:18:00Z

[Sept 4, 2006] "Building a service-oriented architecture is harder and takes more time and money than expected, but businesses aren't giving up on the effort, according to a survey by InformationWeek Research." - Information Week

SOURCE: Information Week

The Dark Side Of SOA - News by InformationWeek

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

BEA Announces SOA for Executives Services

2006-09-18T22:28:00Z

“Many IT leaders are seeking guidance on how to approach pressing issues related to the business and organizational dimensions associated with SOA, including changing roles in the enterprise, governance procedures and policies, and funding considerations,” said Sandra Rogers, director of SOA research at IDC. “Leveraging the experiences gained from peers, and from vendors that have been involved in multiple initiatives, can be of benefit as CIOs navigate issues related to both human and technology change management.”

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

New SOA Management Careers

2006-09-18T22:21:00Z

SOA Management Careers - Orchestration, Service Re-use and Service Contract Roles

At a recent conference, I had a chance to hear DR. Stephane Gagnon of the Inovations Intracubator, Inc. talk about "Integrating SOA, With Enterpise IT". A very energetic speaker he gave an excellent talk on putting SOA into perspective of within the overall Enterprise Architecture. He proposes a new model called SOA7 for the Service-Oriented Development of Applications (SODA). His web site should be coming soon SOA7.

What I found interesting in his presenation was his views on SOA Management and how SOA will create other opportunities as far as new roles and responsibilities and the management of SOA Services.

He believes new roles will need to be created:

1) Business Process Orchestration Role - this is the most obvious talked about new role is for Business Process Orchestration Role, whereby this person takes services and creates new services that support business processes within or between organizations.

2) Service Reuse Role - SOA's ROI is fundamentally based on the re-use of services and associated savings of not having to build new software. However who is going to manage this re-use? Without the monitoring of this metric, services will get built and economies will never be capitalized on. This person is going to have to monitor and control the development and reuse of services in order to re-coup investment in services.

3) Service Contract Management Role - The primary SOA use case model includes the use contracts between a service provide and service consumer. While you may think this is trivial, wait until you try to share services between lines of business within your enterprise or even worse between enterprises. Many organizations say the "politics of shared services" is more complicated than the technology itself. Questions must be answered as to who owns the service, who maintains it, how do you manage these services, and all contract and quality of services related to those services.

Another perspective on these roles is being put forth in the industry by a variety of people who believe that "Product Management Principles" should be applied to SOA. In this view the services become products that are managed throughout their lifecycle. In a recent article in Infoworld by David L. Margulius he expands on this view: see Article - A Product Management Approach to SOA.

I am sure there may be additional roles required with the implementation of SOA, and if you are looking to contribute to the SOA deployment within your organization, you can either resist it or position yourself for one of these new emerging SOA roles.

I will have more on Stephane's presentation and SOA7 in an upcoming blog.

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

Free Chapter - SOA Project Planning Aspects

2006-09-18T03:10:00Z

Service-Oriented Architecture Compass

"This chapter takes the next step toward execution by focusing on how to plan an SOA project. The topics in this chapter constitute the best practices the authors have uncovered for forming a project office, how to define the phases of SOA adoption, the need for and mechanisms of SOA governance, and finally, the various project roles and how they interact with each other."

Chapter 4 - SOA Project Planning Aspects

or

Download PDF

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

Project Management of SOA Requires Different Approach

2006-09-18T03:06:00Z

SOA Upends Development Traditions

September 18, 2006 (Computerworld) --

WASHINGTON -- "Moving toward a service-oriented architecture often means radically changing how a company uses software applications, but some of the most vexing issues associated with an SOA are not technical issues, but rather challenges managing people and policies during the shift."

Article

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Gary E. Smith
SOA Project Manager

THE SOA NETWORK
The SOA Network	www.soanetwork.net
The SOA Blog Network	www.soablognetwork.com
SOA Book Network	www.soabooks.net
SOA Developer Network	www.soadeveloper.net
SOA Training Network	www.soatraining.org
SOA Career Network	www.soahotjobs.com

SOA Architect	www.soaarchitect.org
SOA Enterprise Architect	www.soaenterprisearchitect.org
SOA Network Architect	www.soanetworkarchitect.com
SOA Security Architect	www.soasecurityarchitect.com
SOA Identity Architect	www.soaidentityarchitect.com
SOA Governance Architect	www.soagovernancearchitect.com
SOA Test Architect	www.soatestarchitect.com
SOA Telecom Architect	www.soatelecomarchitect.com

SOA Project Manager	www.soaprojectmanager.com
SOA Business Analyst	www.soabusinessanalyst.com


AON Network Architect	www.aonnetworkarchitect.com
SONA Network Architect	www.sonanetworkarchitect.com
GRID Network Architect	www.gridnetworkarchitect.com

THE BPM NETWORK
BPM Blog Network	www.bpmblognetwork.com
BPM Architect	www.bpmarchitect.com
Business Process Architect	www.businessprocessarchitect.com

SOA Project Manager | THE SOA NETWORK | IT RESOURCE NETWORK

Stop the Presses! Gartner’s SOA Business Case Framework is Finally Published!

Stop the Presses! Gartner’s SOA Business Case Framework is Finally Published!

Gartner Blog Network

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Optimizing the Enterprise for SOA: From Project Management to Program Management to the "Network Organization" - SOA Magazine

Optimizing the Enterprise for SOA: From Project Management to Program Management to the "Network Organization" SOA Magazine

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Service-Oriented Architecture For Apps Dev And Program Management Pros

Topic Overview: Service-Oriented Architecture For Apps Dev And Program Management Pros

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Project-Oriented SOA - SOA Magazine

Project-Oriented SOA

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Only 1 in 5 SOA Projects Actually Succeed

Only 1 in 5 SOA Projects Actually Succeed

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A Program Management Methodology for SOA - SOA Magazine

A Program Management Methodology for SOA

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A New Foundation: SOA Implementation for Business Transformation

A New Foundation: SOA Implementation for Business Transformation

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Five Rules for Development-time SOA Governance

Roles for Maintenance and Evolution of SOA-Based Systems

Project Manager Survival Kit

Teaming up for SOA

How to succeed with SOA

Best practices of the SOA Development Lifecycle - SearchWebServices

SOA the Easy Way (If That’s Possible)

Automation: A New Imperative for SOA Application Success - SOA World Magazine

'First, do no harm,' guides Marriott SOA plans - SearchWebServices

SOA Projects Need to Be Systematic, Exec Says - ComputerWorld

Best Practices for SOA Management - IBM

SOA Project Staffing Plan...Here are some Rough Guidelines - InfoWorld

The Incremental Approach to SOA - NetManage

The New SOA Opportunity - Sandhill Group

THE SOA NETWORK - Resources for SOA

Efficient IT Shops: Two Trends Foreseen - CIO Magazine

Selling SOA to the CEO - ITBusinessEdge

Managing Service Development - Todd Biske

SOA Project Overview – Building Composites – Roles and Skills by Oleg Figlin

SOA Reality Comes in Three Waves - Saugatuck Research

What Everyone Needs to Know About SOA - ECommerce Times

Accelerating the Delivery of Software Projects - IONA

Human Services Bus Stays Human - Norbert Bieberstein

Typical SOA Development Takes 3-6 Months - eWeek

SOA Development: The New Wild West - Enterprise Systems

SOA Development Survival Guide - IBM

WEBINAR - Change Management - Linking Development and Deployment

The Perfect Storm - Redmond Developer

Managing SOAs with Application Lifecycle Mgt - WhitePaper

Managing Service Oriented Architectures with Application Lifecycle Management

Turn Your SOA Projects Into Lasting Business Success With Higher-Value Services - IBM WebCast

SOA Demystified! Turn Your SOA Projects Into Lasting Business Success With Higher-Value Services

Blog of Interest - Steve Jones

NEW BLOG - "SOA Business Analyst"

SOA Practitioners' Guide from BEA

Downloads:

The Dark Side Of SOA - InformationWeek

BEA Announces SOA for Executives Services

New SOA Management Careers

Free Chapter - SOA Project Planning Aspects

Project Management of SOA Requires Different Approach

Optimizing the Enterprise for SOA: From Project Management to Program Management to the "Network Organization"

SOA Magazine