Your SOA is JABOWS (Just A Bunch Of Web Services) and I can prove it

re: Your SOA is JABOWS (Just A Bunch Of Web Services) and I can prove it

Malcolm Anderson — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 22:44:31 GMT

I'm missing something.

How can something that “changes rarely” also “happens frequently”

I'm assuming that I'm missing a distinction.

Do you have some object examples to point to so I can tell what rare change happens frequently?

re: Your SOA is JABOWS (Just A Bunch Of Web Services) and I can prove it

NickMalik — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 16:59:49 GMT

Imagine you are a small online retail store selling only music players. The process 'take an order' happens very frequently. So does 'receive a stock shipment' and 'ship an order'.

However, if your store is responding to the ever increasing hype in the music player business, you can get an edge by learning about your customers wants, and perhaps contacting folks when the model that they want appears on the market to get a pre-order.

So you try that, but it doesn't work. Then you come up with the idea of holding contests and a betting pool on your website dealing with features that 'should' be in the product. But that doesn't work either.

So you start bundling players in with iTunes cards, and sales goes up. That's the case of a frequently occuring process (take an order) changing often (three times, in this example).

To do this well, you need isolation between the notions of 'present an offer', 'bundle stock', 'collect customer desires', etc. You mix and match until you get it right.

This is where SOA wins.

re: Your SOA is JABOWS (Just A Bunch Of Web Services) and I can prove it

Malcolm Anderson — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 19:21:13 GMT

Ok, I think I have it.

And if you have a process that happens rarely, but changes frequently, you might just want to leave that as a manual process simply because if:

You have one order per quarter and

The model changes on a weekly basis

Then there is a negative justification (read "no business value") to carrying stock in that genre.

I'm mixing my metaphors horribly but I get it now. Thanks.

re: Your SOA is JABOWS (Just A Bunch Of Web Services) and I can prove it

NickMalik — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 16:53:00 GMT

Sounds like you got it. Yes, a process that occurs rarely but changes frequently should remain a human endeavor using general IW tools (like Office and Excel). ("Drafting Purchase Documents to Acquire Another Company" usually falls into this category, as do most other forms of fine art).

re: Your SOA is JABOWS (Just A Bunch Of Web Services) and I can prove it

jamet123 — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 22:46:12 GMT

What happens when your process does not change all that often but decisions (or decision services) within it do? I think you need to consider both process agility and decision agility (http://www.ebizq.net/blogs/decision_management/2006/09/is_a_bpm_suite_enough_to_deliv.php). Achieving "Agility" is more complex than just SOA or BPMS (http://www.ebizq.net/blogs/decision_management/2006/07/achieving_agility_some_notes_a.php). Decision Services in your SOA can deliver an additional layer of agility within your processes - check out this article on SOA and rules http://www.soamag.com/I2/1106-2.asp.

re: Your SOA is JABOWS (Just A Bunch Of Web Services) and I can prove it

NickMalik — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 10:29:20 GMT

Hello JT,

The answer to your question "what happens when process does not change but decisions do" is a matter of business rule management. That is not particularly addressed by SOA, nor it is addressed by more traditionally structured applications. The method for coping with business rule changes is the SAME regardless of which architecture you use (although SOA's disconnected model may make it easier to adopt a rules engine).

Basically, the ability to modify running rules is a variable that has no effect on whether a SOA is any good. It has an effect on whether a particular SOA component is good, but not on the Architecture itself.