What Service Orientation is NOT!

re: What Service Orientation is NOT!

Blake Handler — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 04:50:05 GMT

Not that I wish to disagree with someone with “666” in their nickname – but the metaphor “explain it to your grandmother” is simply that . . . a metaphor.

It means you have such a thorough understanding of a subject that you CAN explain it to anyone. I personally doubt that he meant that he wished to spend his time with his grandmother discussing computers. (^_^)

re: What Service Orientation is NOT!

Christophe Gricourt — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 14:20:54 GMT

Before you can explain SO to your grandmother, I think you should try to explain it to your CIO/CTO and even to your end user. Even in France (not only in Redmond) They usually don't buy negative definitions.

SO is the way to stop seeing your information system as a business stopper and turn it into a business enabler.
In other words SO is about bridging the gap between business and technology.

SO is seeing your information system as a set of services it can fulfill instead of a set of technologies it is made of.

SO is about packaging (with the marketing connotation) your information system in order to reach a broader audience (yes, that does also mean interop) and even create the need instead of just responding to it.

re: What Service Orientation is NOT!

Tom Fuller — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 15:20:17 GMT

As you know I absolutely love this debate. My interest for this very topic started when an animated Welshmen posed the question to a room of architects when he was leading the Indigo Road Show in Tampa ... maybe you know him :)

I do agree with you that it is easier to explain what SO is not. I also think that it's easier to sometimes explain what it can do. I know it's not a traditional answer to the 'What is SOA' question but I personally like this type of a definition:

Service Orientation is an application delivery strategy that focuses on delivering loosely coupled building block services that can be quickly aggregated into new meaningful applications.

This usually shifts the conversation to things like workflows and enterprise portals which business users tend to 'get'. Helping people understand the value and helping people understand what makes this 'seemingly new' (I realize it's not new but everyone thinks it is) application development strategy great is where I tend to take the conversation.

Thoughts? I still don't think my grandmother will want to hear it. If my grandmother is an analogy for business sponsor then ok I think my 'grandmother' does want to hear the definition I have above.

re: What Service Orientation is NOT!

Paul — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 14:14:06 GMT

WIF? WTF? or should I ask?
/P

re: What Service Orientation is NOT!

RichTurner666 — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 22:26:15 GMT

Blake ... duuuude ... you need a sense of humour!

Tom ... glad to see you wade in here! :)

Paul ... glad to see you're still around and stirring the pot! ;) I am guessing at what branding will do with a new piece of technology I now own ... nothing set in stone yet so I won't go into it just yet, but keep your eyes peeled! ;)

Christophe ... thanks for your thought, although I respectfully disagree with your assertion that SO/A has anything to do with interop ... that's an implementation detail and should not be permitted to leak into the level of discussion that SO/A should be limited to.

When someone architects a house, they do not define which way a bolt should be turned in order to tighten it. In the same way, when we architect a system, we should not define how two systems will communicate across a wire. Doing so tarnishes an architecture with implemnentation detail and significantly diminishes our ability to cleanly architect a system that satisfies a business need by coupling business requirements to implementation/technology details.

This is why I argue so strongly that technology specifics should be kept out of discussions carried out at the SO/A level.

Newsflash

Dennis van der Stelt — Mon, 30 Jan 2006 16:12:29 GMT

Sometimes I'm reading up on my subscribed weblogs and just see so much that I want to share. Inspired...

Cider with Richard...

From 9 till 2 — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 17:33:12 GMT

Newsflash

Dennis' Blog — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 17:37:12 GMT

Sometimes I'm reading up on my subscribed weblogs and just see so much that I want to share. Inspired

¿Confundido con la Orientación a Servicios?

Kamikaze Reloaded — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 03:19:22 GMT

Si alguna vez han intentado definir o explicarle a alguien qué es Orientación a Servicios (SO, Service

New and Notable 90

Sam Gentile — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 22:46:53 GMT

I have finally reached number 90 as this series has been going for years although its the first one here

New and Notable 90

Sam Gentile Personal Blog — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 23:38:31 GMT

I have finally reached number 90 as this series has been going for years although its the first one here

New and Notable 90

Sam Gentile's Blog (if (DeveloperTask == Communication && OS == Windows) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 04:33:10 GMT

I have finally reached number 90 as this series has been going for years although its the first one here. Today is a big day for me/us - its Heather's Birthday! My daughter turns 3 today! I'm already thinking of the teenage years I am going to have to