Java Reference
In-Depth Information
Selecting a Pilot Project
Problem
You are ready to get started with SOA and therefore need to select a first project. You are not
sure how to make your selection.
Solution
Use the following criteria to measure how viable a particular project might be as a pilot:
▪ Does the project create business value?
▪ Does the project have limited scope?
▪ Would the project make a good service?
▪ Do the team members have a good understanding of the problem domain the project ad-
dresses?
▪ Is the project useful but not mission critical?
Discussion
Considering these criteria should help you make a good decision about which project to use
as a starting point. In this section, we'll examine each criterion in greater detail.
Does the project create business value?
SOA is in many ways about aligning IT with the business so that eventually there is a blurring
of lines between the two. How this emerges will be very dependent on your organization and
its culture. But SOA requires considerable support. It represents a new way of thinking about
systems, and there are many APIs to learn. While there are free and open source tools to use
as application servers, enterprise service buses, business process execution and more, many
organizations will make expensive software purchases. That process can require lots of time
and input from the business. The investment that the business must make in education of the
team and evangelizing to the larger IT group means real time and money that initially are not
spent getting something new. It is frequently viewed as a sunk cost in infrastructure that the
business hopes will pay off in the long run.
For these reasons, it is important to win the business over; otherwise, the investment upon
which an SOA team is dependent could dry up. The way to win the business over is to show
them the money. Choose a project that will have some immediate return so that the business
