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Explaining SOA failure to the boss: here are some real good excuses

By | November 20, 2008, 7:33pm PST

Summary: ‘On the bright side, 70% of our initiatives fail anyway’

Gartner’s Frank Kenney provides the perfect excuse letter for corporate managers and shareholders for explaining why an SOA failed.

Among the gems:

  • “I have failed to associate our SOA initiatives with our business needs, therefore I cannot show any value for the hundreds of services we have created ,
  • “I have failed to properly create and support an SOA Center of Excellence, Steering Committee or Competency Center,
  • “I firmly believe that SOA is nothing more than fancy CORBA or COM.”

Kenney’s letter urges SOA proponents to accentuate the positive: “On the bright side 70% of our initiatives fail anyway. The failure of SOA is SOA’s fault not mine.”

As always, Kenny provides some good lessons in what to do and what not to do to advance SOA initiatives.

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Topics

SOA, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Web Services, Middleware, Enterprise Software, Software, Joe McKendrick

Joe McKendrick is an author, consultant and speaker specializing in trends and developments shaping the technology industry.

Disclosure

Joe McKendrick

Joe McKendrick is an independent consultant, editor and speaker.

Joe has performed project work (white papers, articles, blogs, research and presentations) for the following companies in the IT marketspace:

  • CBS Interactive/CNET/ZDNet (this blog)
  • ebizQ
  • Evans Data
  • Gartner
  • IBM
  • Informatica
  • IDC
  • Microsoft
  • Systinet/HP
  • Teradata
  • Unisphere Reseach, a division of Information Today, Inc.
  • WebLayers

Joe has also performed research work for the following sponsoring organizations in partnership with Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, Inc.

  • IBM
  • Luminex
  • Noetix
  • Oracle Corp.
  • Teradata
  • Informatica
  • International Oracle Users Group
  • Oracle Applications Users Group
  • Professional Association for SQL Server
  • International DB2 Users Group
  • International Sybase Users Group
  • SHARE (IBM large systems users group)

Biography

Joe McKendrick

Joe McKendrick is an author and independent analyst who tracks the impact of information technology on management and markets. Joe is co-author, along with 16 leading industry leaders and thinkers, of the SOA Manifesto, which outlines the values and guiding principles of service orientation. He also speaks frequently on Enterprise 2.0 and SOA topics at industry events and Webcasts. As an independent analyst, he has also authored numerous research reports in partnership with Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, Inc. for user groups such as SHARE, Oracle Applications Users Group, and International DB2 Users Group. Joe is also an active SOA contributor for ebizQ/TechTarget. In a previous life, Joe served as director of the Administrative Management Society (AMS), an international professional association dedicated to advancing knowledge within the IT and business management fields. He is a graduate of Temple University.

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