Wednesday, November 4, 2009

A rant on "SOA Projects"

The appearance of the SOA Manifesto has led me to look closely to the naming of projects and the implications of such names.
Time and time again I see projects titled or described with a technology or architecture in the name. How often do we hear, "The SAP project failed?" It isn't because the software doesn't work, there are a host of other potential reasons - all having to do with the human factors. Likewise with "SOA Projects."
The SOA community (huge generalization here) talks about "SOA Projects." Hogwash, I say. There are very few "SOA Projects." There are and should be many projects where the underlying approach is Service Oriented. There are very good reasons for deploying SOA in the enterprise/division or wherever appropriate. The deployment of SOA governance, technologies, etc. might be considered a SOA project, but creating a business application according to those tenets doesn't make that business application a "SOA Project."
Does this really matter? Isn't calling it a SOA project a convenient shorthand? Isn't calling it a SOA Project a convenient way of getting to the right funding bucket? Well, if that's the way the business operates, I, begrudgingly, guess so.
I think it is more insidious than that, however. By putting the technology or architecture top dead center in the name, it gives us an opportunity to make that the primary goal. Rather like hearing the requirement, "I need a database that..." Well databases are fine things, but a requirement that leads us to a "Database Project" again focuses on the wrong things.
So next time your SAP project failed, ask yourself the question, "Is it SAP that failed? or did the business not realize the anticipated benefits for other reasons?" It's easy to blame the technology.

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