You may know the authors from their Web site, zapthink, which provides analysis on XML, Web services, and service orientation, and which is where I first became aware of the book Service Orient or Be Doomed , by Jason Bloomberg and Ron Schmeltzer.

I was intrigued by the book’s catchy title and thought I should give it a look.

Right from the beginning, the authors warn that this is not a technology book but rather a business book about how new technologies will affect the business, what advantages they can bring, and how they will affect the organization. The book has a great outline, which covers the topic from soup to nuts. The first five chapters cover a technology overview (from a business level) of how we got into this mess and the underlying technologies that support service orientation. The middle three chapters cover service orientation and architecture and the last four chapters talk about organizational and other issues related to a transition toward service orientation. They keep a catchy title/subtitle theme going throughout the book, my favorite being “Business Processes: Sweetness and Light or Evil Hellspawn?”

The authors got it 100% right when they warned that this is not a technology book. I don’t think that most architects or techies will really appreciate it (but then again, they are not the target audience). But if you’re struggling to explain SOA to the business or you’re trying to implement or introduce SOA into your organization, pick up a copy of this book and pass it on to the manager, business CIO, or CEO. This will be a great aid in getting the concepts of SOA (and, incidentally, the importance of architecture) across to them.

Read more at: Cutter Consortium