"SOA is People"

Steve Jones, author of Enterprise SOA Adoption Strategies, very accurately points out that success in SOA projects depends on much more than technology. From his blog:

Yes folks the thing that will actually make or break your systems in the majority of cases will be the people. This means the talent of the people defining and delivering and the cultural changes in the wider organisation to accept and take advantage of the services effectively.
All too often in IT’s obsession with technology we argue about the pointless and ignore the critical. If your SOA strategy and direction isn’t centred around the people and practice changes, then it won’t deliver the benefits you expect.

As with most complex technologies destined for adoption across the enterprise, project success depends on understanding and addressing both technical and non-technical issues. The road to project failure is littered by people who have ignored the human dimensions of software adoption.

(Thanks to Carlos Somohano for pointing this one out.)