The Types of Questions You Need to Ask Yourself

The answer to the "when" question depends on a number of different factors, some of which include:

• How far along in terms of competency is your organization with the development of application objects and components?

• Does your development organization understand store-and-forward messaging architecture?

• Do you have any customized applications that you may wish to sell on the open market?

• Do you have an opportunity to gain competitive advantage using Web services object components?

• Do you have an opportunity to reduce your cost of development for new applications using a Web services developmental approach?

Notice that these questions isolate two elements: (1) the level of object-oriented programming/messaging competency within your organization; and (2) an opportunity to reduce costs or open new markets. If your staff has the programming skills necessary to build Web services and if you can identify low-transaction, high-payback opportunities that can make use of a message-passing, store-and-forward architecture (which is what a program-to-program architecture like Web services is) then you can embark today on building Web services applications. On the other hand, if your programming staff does not have the required skills or if you can't isolate a business opportunity that can exploit Web services the time is not right for you to start building Web services applications.