Service Orient or Be Doomed!: How Service Orientation Will Change Your Business

CHAPTER 8

How to Think Service Oriented

By now you've realized that Service Orientation requires at least as much change in the organization of our IT departments as in the implementation of technology. After all, changing the technology we use is much easier than changing the way we think. Companies are used to implementing the latest and greatest technologies, but are loath to change the structure of their IT departments. Yet the movement to Service Orientation requires more than simply implementing new techniques and methodologies—it also requires a change in the very way we think of IT. In this chapter, we'll help you rearrange your thinking in a way that's Service oriented and, in the process, move your organization that much closer to the goal of agility in the face of unpredictable business change.

WHEN NOT TO USE SERVICE-ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE

The first step in changing your thinking about how companies use IT is understanding when not to change your thinking. You'd think that with this book's laserlike focus on the benefits of Service Orientation, we'd be of the opinion that SOA was good for all users, systems, and situations. As a matter of fact, SOA is particularly valuable in certain circumstances—namely, in heterogeneous IT environments that are subject to frequent change. However, in many situations—if your IT environment isn't heterogeneous, for example, or isn't expecting much in the way of change—then maybe an SOA isn't right for you.

In these cases, the advantages ...