SOA Scope Definition

This presentation was delivered at the 5th SOA Practitioners’ Conference in Zurich, Switzerland on October 26, 2006.

This presentation covers building the business case for SOA, defining the scope of a SOA initiative, and applying architectural best practices to SOA.

This presentation is delivered as a 38 slide PowerPoint presentation in pdf format.

The Role of the Architect

This presentation was delivered at the 5th SOA Practitioners’ Conference in Zurich, Switzerland on October 26, 2006.

This presentation covers the role of the architect in a SOA initiative — design, dealing with organizational issues, project management, and governance. The Zachman Framework is highlighted.

This 32-slide PowerPoint is presented in pdf format.

SOA Consulting Expert Roundtable

ZapThink’s ZapForum Podcast for September 14,2006 features

Guest Experts: Ken Dschankilic, Director, Eastern Region Integration Practice, Online Business Systems; Dr. Udaya Bhaskar Vemulapati, General Manager, Enterprise Architecture and Consulting Practice, Wipro Technologies; and Peter Graef, Partner,
[ipt].

Listen to this Podcast and you will:

• Get a clear picture of the pros and cons of both top-down and bottom-up approaches to SOA
• Understand how to build the right Services at the right level of granularity
• Learn about the relationship between IT governance and SOA governance, as well as the cultural aspects of governance
• Understand why some organizations believe that they should buy a product to implement SOA, and why that’s not generally a good approach

ZapThink: Enterprises Not Buying Service-Oriented Architecture by Name; Consulting Firms Integrate SOA Best Practices with Business-Focused Offerings

BALTIMORE, Md.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sept. 6, 2006–ZapThink released a report today showing that few enterprises are specifically budgeting for or requesting Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) by name. Instead, business buyers budget for specific solutions to their business problems, and more consulting firms than ever before leverage Service Orientation best practices to provide those solutions. The main buyer of such initiatives has shifted toward the non-technical, business part of the enterprise.

“The clear pattern with today’s SOA projects is that they are increasingly business-focused,” said Jason Bloomberg, Senior Analyst with ZapThink. “Many consulting firms are integrating SOA best practices into a broad differentiated offering that is not necessarily specific to SOA.”

ZapThink expects the percentage of IT projects overall that leverage Service Orientation best practices to continue to grow over time, and those best practices will soon become ubiquitous. ZapThink also expects the percentage of IT projects that are named, SOA-specific projects to peak in 2007, with Service Orientation best practices increasingly subsumed within the expected, routine part of IT projects more broadly after that date.

Key findings of the report include:

• Breaking up a large SOA initiative into multiple, discrete projects is an effective way to manage the risk of architectural change.
• Integration-centric offerings and technologies are taking a back seat to organizations’ need to improve their overall approach to enterprise architecture.
• Many SOA consulting providers are confused by product vendors who often distort the true message of SOA to best fit their product offerings.
• Many SOA consulting firms confuse architecture with implementation, causing significant issues in short-term SOA adoption.
• Average deal sizes for SOA projects range from an average of $150,000 for integration-focused efforts to several million dollars for enterprisewide and compliance-focused initiatives.

The report, available on ZapThink’s Web site at www.zapthink.com, features several firms offering SOA consulting services, including Accenture (NYSE: ACN – News), AgilePath, Alphacourt, Anexinet, Arc Aspicio, Avanade, BEA Systems (NASDAQ: BEAS – News), BearingPoint (NYSE: BE – News), Bouvet, CapGemini (Paris), CherryRoad Technologies, City Practitioners, D. Callingham & Assoc., Daugherty Business Solutions, Definition 6, e-Brilliance, eSigma, gen-i, Geniant, Hitachi Consulting (NYSE: HIT – News), HP (NYSE: HPQ – News), IBM Global Services (NYSE: IBM – News), Infosys (NASDAQ: INFY – News), innoQ, IPT, Kanbay (NASDAQ: KBAY – News), Keane (NYSE: KEA – News), Lydian Technology, MITRE, Modhelus, Momentum SI, MphasiS, MW2 Consulting, Network Effects, Online Business Systems, PricewaterhouseCoopers, ProSolveIT, Satyam (NYSE: SAY – News), Schumacher Partners, Semantic Arts, SentientPoint, SilverTrain, SOA Software, SOA Systems, Software AG (Frankfurt), SRL Group, Statera, Summa Technologies, Synergy International, Systemiclogic, TasmanAve, TeamSOA, Tier1 Innovation, Voyant Group, Wipro (NYSE: WIT – News), WM-Data (Stockholm), and XWebServices. The report also mentions the following vendors: AmberPoint, Composite Software, Fiorano, Forum Systems, Infravio, LogicLibrary, Mercury (OTC: MERQ – News), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT – News), Mindreef, Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL – News), Reactivity, RedHat (NASDAQ: RHAT – News), SAP (NYSE: SAP – News), Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: SUNW – News), WSO2, and WebLayers.

Read more at: ZapThink Press Release

Fundamental SOA Concepts

This 48-page PowerPoint presented in pdf format includes ZapThink’s basic introduction to SOA, focusing on the ZapThink SOA Roadmap. This presentation is the first to present three versions of the Roadmap: one with implementation steps, one with project milestones, and one with SOA maturity levels.

It was presented at the IPT 4th SOA Practitioners’ Conference in Zurich and Frankfurt in June, 2006.

The Current State of SOA in Practice

Presentation given on roadshow in Bern, Switzerland and Frankfurt, Germany. Presents several SOA case studies and discusses building the business case for SOA.

SOA Focus Area: Managing the SOA Initiative

Presentation given at seminars in Bern, Switzerland and Frankfurt, Germany. Provides advice about building the SOA team and managing SOA projects.

Fundamental SOA Concepts

Introductory presentation to seminars in Bern, Switzerland and Frankfurt, Germany. Covers the basic concepts of SOA.

Infravio Signs Strategic Partnership with ZapThink European Partner (ipt)

“ZapThink’s research shows that the critical growth areas in the SOA marketplace today are governance and SOA professional services,” said Jason Bloomberg, senior analyst with ZapThink. “Infravio’s in-depth knowledge of SOA Governance and lifecycle management, coupled with (ipt)’s architectural expertise and integration resources form a high-value combination for any enterprise looking to advance their SOA initiatives.”

Read more at: Infravio Press Release

ZapThink SOA Roadmap

The ZapThink Roadmap for SOA Implementation presentation covers the following topics:

• The Practice of Architecture
• The Fundamental Tenets of SOA
• SOA Prerequisites
• Contracts and Policies
• Securing and Managing Services
• Metadata Management, Registries, and Repositories
• Service-Oriented Process

This is a 46-slide presentation in pdf format.