A free Delphi Group white paper describes Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions as having the potential to innovate software development, enterprise applications and value chain in much the same way that interchangeable parts re-invented manufacturing. The analysts released the paper in advance of their SOA Summit, slated for October.
Delphi approaches SOA with a pragmatic eye. It's a concept, not a end in itself. It represents fundamental change, and human nature is to slow decision making in the face of change.
The Delphi Group white paper, "SOA: A Business Architecture for Managing Uncertainty", offers a succinct overview of SOA, comparisons to APIs for hard-wired transaction applications such as ERP, explanations of the role of SOA in aligning IT with business, and implications for organizational ideas about applying IT to solving problems, managing business process changes and exceptions, and gaining competitive advantage.
