In the beginning, SOA went through a bit of a big bang, where process architects often tried to use SOA to achieve major goals. Now, in part because of tighter margins and limited budgets, SOA may be better applied with a step-by-step approach to create more immediate benefits and increase flexibility for future improvements to a business process.
Early and frequent results are necessary in a tight economic environment. "Every step along the way has got to pay for itself," said IBM's Tom Rosamilia, General Manager, WebSphere, at a recent event in Orlando, Florida. "I can still have a strategic goal…but I'm probably going [achieve] it one project at a time and I'm going to reap the benefits one project at a time."
Building a business process in such an incremental way can also lead to greater flexibility, especially when SOA principles are applied. Said Rosamilia: "The right way [to achieve flexibility] is with SOA principles. This way, as I go through changing my business process, I can still reuse the things I've laid out as services."
Applying a rules engine to a business process can also increase flexibility. "Anytime you can take the application logic out of hard coding it into the application, it gives you a more flexible process," said Rosamilia. Rules can allow a user to write in natural language and edit application logic in real time without rewriting code. Tom Rosamilia speaks with SearchSOA.com Editor Jack Vaughan at a recent event in Orlando, Florida. See more SOA videos here
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