Requirements Modelling and Specification for Service Oriented Architecture

Foreword by Mark McGregor

Author of Thrive - How to Succeed in the Age Of the Customer and In Search of BPM Excellence; former Chief Coach BPMG.org

When I was asked to write a foreword to this book, I was a little surprised. I have known Ian for many years, and he knows me pretty well. 'Why?', I thought, 'would someone with such a strong technology and methodological background ask me, well-known industry cynic, to do such a thing'.

Then I read the book and all started to become much clearer; this really is the first book of its kind that I have read. Instead of trying to squeeze round pegs into square holes, Ian has taken the time to remind us of which pegs go where and then proceeded to provide us with clear guides on how to make it work.

Few could argue that good IT systems aren't critical to the success of almost any business today. Historically, many of the IT problems we see have been blamed on a disconnect between the business users and IT people. In many ways this disconnect has been propagated through books and articles telling us what and how SOA and Business Process Management (BPM) are, and how we should use them.

As someone who has spent much of the last ten years operating in the BPM and modelling sectors, the problem I see is that too much has been written about how BPM and SOA are about technology and, on the other hand, too much about SOA as a purely business problem. Such confusion inevitably slows down, rather than speeds up, technology adoption.

So at last ...