This document discusses key factors for planning a successful SOA initiative: - A sound methodology and proven processes are needed to reduce risk and provide a path to realizing benefits while meeting goals. - Cooperation across multiple project teams is required, unlike traditional siloed applications, as services involve many teams. - Teams must use a common framework of vocabulary, concepts, and understanding of the target state to build reliability and trust. - Consistency in applying knowledge and practices is critical for success, as teams must be disciplined in their roles and methodology.

1. SOA Planning

2. Overview
• One of the greatest challenges to carrying out
successful SOA projects is in understanding how they
should be carried out. Without being able to rely on
proven processes and practices, an SOA initiative can
turn into a high-risk venture because you simply may
not know what to expect.
• A sound methodology can alleviate this risk by
providing a solid foundation from where you can shape
a delivery approach that accommodates your goals and
requirements while also laying out a path to realizing
the benefits of SOA and service-oriented computing.

3. Teamwork
• Whereas traditional silo-based applications
require cooperation among members of
individual project teams, the delivery of
services and service-oriented solutions
requires cooperation across multiple project
teams.

4. Education
• A key factor to realizing the reliability and
trust required by SOA team members is to
ensure that they use a common
communications framework based on
common vocabulary, definitions, concepts,
methods, and a common understanding of the
target state the team is collectively working to
attain.

5. Discipline
• A critical success factor for any SOA initiative
is consistency in how knowledge and practices
amongst a cooperative team are used and
applied. To be successful as a whole, team
members must therefore be disciplined in
how they apply their knowledge and in how
they carry out their respective roles

6. Balanced Scope
• So far we've established that we need:
• cooperative teams that have...
• a common understanding and education
pertaining to industry and enterprise-specific
knowledge areas and that...
• we need to consistently cooperate as a team,
apply our understanding, and follow a
common methodology and standards in a
disciplined manner.

7. Common factors involved in determining a
balanced scope include:
• cultural obstacles
• authority structures
• geography
• business domain alignment
• available stakeholder support and funding
• available IT resources