SOA Business Case

From Geostandards

Re-use

One of the greatest benefits of service oriented architecture is the ability to re-use already existing information and functions. By combining these services, new services can easily and quickly be compounded. This sounds good, but it immediately becomes clear that re-using existing services can only be realised if the organisation is well organised. This is apparent even if you only consider responsibility and the quality (guarantee) of the services offered. This is why it is wise to consider the O in SOA, which stands for “orient”, as the O in organisation. This way, the first pitfall of regarding service oriented architecture as little technical trick can be avoided.

What makes service orientated architecture different is that it is easier to let the concepts and the possibilities “land” in the business departments and than in the ICT departments. The language and applications that are used are business oriented and no longer ICT oriented.

Standardisation

One under-estimated benefit of service oriented architecture is the extra step it takes toward greater standardisation in, and between, business processes. In order to make services re- usable, one should reflect on the standardisation of information that is necessary to be able to communicate clearly about information with the user. Recording the semantics of data (a clear and highly usable conceptual framework) is an important step in the service oriented process. It ensures that the same “language” is spoken throughout an organisation. It is wise to discuss this in a central place within the organisation. This way, miscommunication will decrease, which is an underestimated benefit. If we consider that standardisation in itself has benefits, this indicates that an introduction of this way of thinking already provides benefits and that the practical application is not directly necessary.

In the standardisation of the technical field, service oriented architecture has a wide scope. A lot of standards are recorded that clearly describe the definition, the re-use and the procedures required for the steering of services. Using these standards makes it technically easy to exchange services and processes in and outside the borders of the organisation. Standardisation of the framework of the concepts and semantics of the information is a necessary pre-condition for the successful realisation of this in a broader context.

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