Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) changes not only the way in which systems are developed, but who they are developed by. Unlike traditional architectures -- where business processes and functionality are mostly implemented through developers -- in the SOA world, new business activities or changes to existing practices can often be implemented directly from the modeling activities performed by business analysts.
As enterprises rush to assess how they can benefit from SOA, many naturally but mistakenly focus on the technological aspects of the solution. As architecture, it's unfair to paint SOA as a panacea to Independent Software Vendors' (ISV) most daunting business problems.
In order to determine if SOA is right for your development organization, you must first clearly understand exactly what SOA is -- and what it isn't, how SOA impacts software development, and the importance of best practices and governance.
