Clarity and Imagination


In November 2006, the magazine Network Computing published a survey of its readers and found that SOA is the "technology buzzword they most despise." Respondents said that their primary concerns were threefold: a lack of familiarity ("What does that stand for again?"); a sense of being overwhelmed (SOA "gives me a headache"); and a perception that the technology "is useful but still too complex and expensive." We personally know of software professionals who dismiss the excitement about services. The perception of some people is that SOA is a marketing ploy or is, at most, a small variation on older technologies.

In truth, SOA includes ideas that have been around for decades. Information hiding, for example, has long meant that a developer can access an existing unit of logic without needing to learn details that are internal to that logic. Even developers in the 1960s wrote modular code, adding building blocks to an inventory of software.

Our reading, however, is that SOA is both genuine and a genuine advance, bringing the older ideas into the world of networked computers. Even if some people are dismissive or choose to wait for tools that simplify service development at less initial expense, we believe that the needs of business will force the adoption of the newer technology. The way of the future is to deploy accessible and more-or-less independent services on varied platforms.

Two characteristics can hasten the transition to SOA. The first is clarity. This book offers technical detail not only because developers need it to fulfill their jobs but because non-developers can interpret situations better if they understand how the technology works.

A second desired characteristic is imagination. Any company can fulfill the promise of the technology to a degree; but the fulfillment is greatest if at least some developers extend their expertise from programming to the details of what the business does and then to the details of what the business might do in the future. To provide insight into the kind of imagination required, this book offers a business scenario.




SOA for the Business Developer. Concepts, BPEL, and SCA
SOA for the Business Developer: Concepts, BPEL, and SCA (Business Developers series)
ISBN: 1583470654
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 157
Authors: Ben Margolis

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