| If your IT is supposed to make your business more | | | | proposed in 2000/2001 the consolidation of Inbound |
| agile, then you need to turn to SOA, right? I do not | | | | and Outbound documents into Closed-Loop CRM |
| agree. Why? Because everyone is once again mixing | | | | processes with Papyrus WebRepository - to the blank |
| up cause and effect! An agile organization will fully | | | | eyes of every big-name analyst I spoke to! Today, |
| utilize IT with or without SOA. SOA will not make a | | | | you find Inbound/Outbound in every ECM vendor's |
| business or its people more agile. | | | | White Paper. Thank you all, because copying is the |
| Agility will only come from business and IT being willing | | | | sincerest form of flattery. Today, I already propose the |
| to innovate and empower their users by doing away | | | | consolidation of ECM, BPM, and CRM … So |
| with rigid business processes and the straightjacket like | | | | you better stop digging! |
| impediment of BPM, CRM and ECM. Encoding your | | | | Do we need Governance? |
| processes into rigid Java for SOA is a business killer. | | | | I do agree that we need some oversight to make the |
| Why the incredible SOA hype? | | | | user happy. We can call it governance if you prefer, |
| The SOA bandwagon is overloaded and subsequently | | | | but it is simply the requirements of management |
| bogged because everyone has jumped on to sell | | | | between users and IT. If you already have a deeply |
| products and services. No surprise that Network | | | | fragmented IT landscape with too many outsourcers |
| Computing Magazine has named SOA the most | | | | and external consultants maybe you do need |
| despised buzzword in November 2006. The 'If You | | | | governance to stay afloat. |
| Can't Sell It, Rename It Game' played by the likes of | | | | SOA or Change Management? |
| IBM (with Tivoli and WebSphere), Oracle (with Fusion), | | | | The core issue of IT is change management. Change |
| BEA (with Aqualogic) and others. Something has to | | | | Management is about metadata: structured data about |
| change, and it's not just the product names. | | | | data that "describes, explains, locates, or otherwise |
| Do we even know what is wrong? | | | | makes it easier to retrieve, use, or manage an |
| I seriously doubt it. The influential quantum physicist | | | | information resource." |
| David Bohm wrote in 1980: "Fragmentation is so | | | | Yes, but we do all that with XML, I am told. Listen, |
| widespread in our society that it interferes with our | | | | WSDL metadata for SOAP and UDDI metadata for |
| perception and stops us from solving the simplest | | | | WSDL is still not enough because neither links to the |
| problems." Sounds familiar, right? We put everything in | | | | user interface and the process. You need DTDs, |
| little boxes, buy best-of-breed software solutions for | | | | XSLs, XSLTs, XPATH, BPML and BPEL and a lot of |
| each and every business problem and now we are | | | | Java code to verify that the data is valid and use it in |
| surprised that they won't work together. | | | | hard-coded decision blocks. |
| On the process level we dissect work into little | | | | In 'SOA For Dummies' the BEA-friendly authors |
| process pieces because they seem easier to manage | | | | therefore recommend a repository for the Java |
| this way. Process fragmentation was described by | | | | programs AND a registry for the dynamically linked |
| Thomas Davenport in 1993 as such: "A process is thus | | | | SOA services. Their argument for two management |
| a specific ordering of work activities across time and | | | | products is understandable in the light of BEA's old |
| space, with a beginning and an end, and clearly defined | | | | Tuxedo, the programmed Java Weblogic and the |
| inputs and outputs: a structure for action. Taking a | | | | acquired Aqualogic workflow world. |
| process approach implies adopting the customer's | | | | However, a metadata change in a service interface is |
| point of view. Processes are the structure by which | | | | NOT automatically propagated to all user interfaces, all |
| an organization does what is necessary to produce | | | | Java modules, all process definitions, all XML |
| value for its customers." | | | | transforms and all databases. There is NO WAY that |
| I can go along with that but what IT implemented was | | | | a user himself can make any change simply and |
| more aptly described by Foote and Yoder in 1999, | | | | quickly. As there is no common versioning and no |
| who wrote: "A 'Big Ball of Mud' system is a | | | | common deployment, we are right where we were |
| haphazardly structured, sprawling, sloppy, | | | | before - in a 'Big Ball of Mud' - just more complex. |
| duct-tape-and-baling-wire, spaghetti-code jungle. These | | | | Standards - where art thou? |
| systems show unmistakable signs of unregulated | | | | Others believe that standards are the solution. There |
| growth, and repeated, expedient repair. Information is | | | | are many SOA definitions from various organizations |
| shared promiscuously among distant elements of the | | | | such as the Open Group, Oasis, OMG and others. |
| system, often to the point where nearly all the | | | | Most definitions still miss several core issues, such as |
| important information becomes global or duplicated." | | | | global transactions, security and event handling. As a |
| This perfectly describes most SOA-Java application | | | | consequence there is still no standard way to deliver |
| servers. Why? Because the clean object-oriented | | | | SOA. |
| encapsulation is destroyed by an irrational requirement | | | | Several vendors offer SOA Change Management |
| to use XML messages. XML conflicts with SOA, | | | | with tools such as HP-Mercury, IBM Tivoli and others. |
| because Metadata has to be managed in a repository | | | | These are huge investments to deal with SOA |
| and not inside the data file. | | | | infrastructure and networking but not with the |
| I propose that David Bohm is right and that | | | | front-end business service needed by the user. |
| fragmentation is needed for our ability to think, organize | | | | As you can see, confusion reigns. I see RFPs where |
| and plan. However, the world around us is not built in | | | | SOA compliance is requested at the same time as |
| process fragments and thus the current SOA | | | | 'fully-featured APIs'. RFPs request XML and Java |
| approach will not solve fragmentation but rather, | | | | standards, when there is no such thing. That is an easy |
| create a software engineering nightmare at a higher | | | | 'YES' response in the RFP. Many IT people seem to |
| level. Business processes and process change | | | | believe that SOA in some way solves the |
| management needs to be first looked at before IT | | | | non-standard situation of Java and XML, when at best |
| systems can be defragmented. | | | | it hides some of the problems. |
| Business Process 1911's Style | | | | Where are we going with SOA? |
| There are those who say that SOA is an extension of | | | | I think that in a few years we will have forgotten it. |
| process management. BPM proponents are however | | | | The big new buzzword is already 'Event-Driven |
| stuck in 1911's-Taylorism and SOA makes it worse | | | | Architecture'. |
| because there is still fragmented change management. | | | | Why am I not surprised? When I designed |
| Frederick Taylor believed in fragmentation and | | | | WebRepository in 1996 it was built around state |
| specialization and proposed rigidly structured | | | | event-driven application models. BPM/SOA vendors |
| corporations. Hence, each and every IT application | | | | claim that you can 'simply connect' events to the 2-D |
| represents such a business process fragment, | | | | workflow graphs of a BPEL process by using Java |
| because if not, according to Davenport, we don't need | | | | code (i.e. with Oracle jDeveloper). |
| it. But what is a business process? Rummler and | | | | From my perspective, to use the word 'agility' for SOA |
| Brache (1990) proposed that "a business process is a | | | | that requires Java programmers to create a simple |
| series of steps designed to produce a product or | | | | event-driven process is misrepresentation. |
| service for a customer." And that is quite simply, | | | | Consultants and analysts: |
| incorrect. | | | | Why do I seem to continuously needle against |
| Yes, there are rigid processes and some Ad-Hoc | | | | consultants, analysts and outsourcers? I actually do not. |
| approaches giving more room to the user to choose | | | | But like everyone else, not all of the ideas that |
| the course of the process. Strangely enough, hardly | | | | consultants have are good ones. |
| anyone seems to realize that the need for an agile | | | | Service-oriented architecture (SOA) was first |
| enterprise is created by the dynamics inherent in | | | | described by Gartner in 1996 in an SSA Research |
| process related business communication. It is obvious | | | | paper. Gartner, like most research companies have a |
| that the state of the communication content controls | | | | cupboard full of skeletons (failed predictions) and I am |
| the process and not its meaningless steps. Business | | | | not holding that against them. SOA is not a wrong idea |
| communication is not just a document or an email, but | | | | and neither is EDA, but what the industry made of it is |
| can be anything: a selection menu, a web page, a | | | | what I am speaking out against. I am asking you to not |
| sticker on the document, a data record, images, or | | | | let the prevailing vision cloud your ability to judge for |
| even a voice recording or video. No matter how much | | | | yourself. I am asking you to not be afraid, to stand up |
| time and money is spent on business process analysis, | | | | and say what you - as someone who is right there at |
| there will always be one more communication item | | | | the grass roots of IT - have to say about it. I am |
| needed for a business process once it gets going. This | | | | asking users and business department to not interfere |
| is why collaboration tools and email are now so | | | | with what IT wants to deliver as long as IT has a |
| pervasive. They don't require analysis to communicate. | | | | process focus on the user. Actually, I am asking users |
| In 'Reengineering the Corporation' Hammer and | | | | and IT to be more agile! |
| Champy made a very important suggestion: "Not the | | | | The Vision of the Anointed: |
| individual task or process is important but only the | | | | What is it then that stops most large organizations |
| outcome." BPM systems and BPR projects miss the | | | | from forward-thinking strategic change and innovation - |
| ability to adjust to the dynamics of goal-orientation. | | | | as requested by Barbara Gomolski above - equally in |
| Damelio writes in 'Basics of Process Mapping': "Maps | | | | government or business? Why are otherwise excellent |
| and flowcharts make work visible ... they represent a | | | | professionals so afraid to do something new? |
| snapshot in time …" And that is all that business | | | | I have found one explanation: In "The Vision of the |
| process is supposed to be, as Bohm said. We need | | | | Anointed" Thomas Sowell wrote in 1996 about political |
| fragmentation to understand, but life does not work | | | | visions in a way that fully applies to other areas |
| this way. | | | | including business and IT visions: "Differing visions, of |
| How relevant is IT to process? | | | | course, are based on differing assumptions … |
| In 'Does IT matter?' Nicolas G.Carr writes that | | | | For a prevailing vision, however, meaning that its |
| '… in the 1990's many strategic investments | | | | assumptions are taken for granted by the so-called |
| went to waste … and business executives | | | | thinking-people, those assumptions are never |
| have grown skeptical about IT, ...' and claims that IT is | | | | challenged with demands for empirical evidence |
| now a commodity and no longer producing a | | | | … A prevailing vision offers more than anything |
| competitive advantage. I tend to agree, but the | | | | a state-of-grace for those who believe in it." |
| problem is not IT but what the business users request | | | | The subtitle of Sowell's book is fittingly: |
| from IT! | | | | "Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy." Only |
| Users want to organize their work in their own | | | | politicians and stock market analysts outdo IT in the art |
| indescribable way, while management wants to rigidly | | | | of self-congratulation. |
| control the user process. IT has absolutely no clue how | | | | Someone who opposes a prevailing vision is fought |
| to go about both, because the underlying technology | | | | with all means possible by claiming that 'the hidden |
| (mostly because of Windows, Java and XML) has | | | | motives have to be disclosed.' Much like the dicussion |
| become nearly unmanageable. SOA simply adds to | | | | on climate change ... |
| the already incredible complexity. | | | | References and innovation: |
| Business users are human and point at something to | | | | IT people in large organizations more than others shy |
| say: This I like and this I don't. Once users see a cute | | | | away from innovation. I am always asked for |
| GUI front-end they think the inside must be cute as | | | | reference installations (and no one wants to be one) |
| well. Users buy a GUI, not architecture, flexibility or | | | | which is impossible for innovative software. Hey, it's |
| long-term manageability. | | | | NEW; no one else has done it before! Additionally |
| They demand however 99.99% availability (which is | | | | there are no two customers who actually do the |
| fine for the underlying mainframe-based, | | | | same thing with our software or have the same |
| bank-transaction system); but when the average | | | | infrastructure. As always, a reference should be about |
| mental and physical availability of an employee is at | | | | the integrity of the people involved and not about |
| most 50% then the availability expectation linked with | | | | technology. |
| the current complexity of technology creates the long | | | | You can obviously choose the safe route and decide |
| rollout cycles. Users expect IT to be inhumane and | | | | not to innovate and make your choice from a Gartner |
| that's exactly what they get. And because they cant | | | | Magic Quadrant. Gartner Group is however a market |
| get what they want business is fighting for control | | | | analyst company and thus their information is from the |
| over IT with Outsourcing and Governance. Bad idea! | | | | past. You won't find innovation there. |
| Adherence to ineffective governance rules is usually | | | | SOA is not innovation but an evolution of |
| more important than what constituents need, in case | | | | object-oriented messaging that took a wrong turn |
| you have not yet noticed. On his ZD-Net blog Joe | | | | because vendors needed to sell what they had - they |
| McKendrick asks to "Turn your SOA into a HOA | | | | just renamed it. My position in this paper has in |
| (human oriented architecture)" and says, "Without | | | | difference translated into ISIS Papyrus products over |
| governance, there is no SOA. But maybe we don't | | | | the last twenty years and therefore some of it has |
| want too much governance." I want to add: Maybe we | | | | been and is once again very innovative. |
| don't want SOA at all if it requires even more rigidity to | | | | I propose that going into a huge programming effort |
| control and manage our business processes? | | | | yourself or buying a rigid piece of 'standard' software |
| Business Process Decision Making: | | | | (with rigid processes) involves a much bigger risk than |
| Let's face it: The AGILE-SOA-jBPEL-XML-enterprise | | | | giving something new a try. IT is the most powerful |
| can't see beyond Tayloristic 2-D process graphs! The | | | | competitive tool there is - if implemented and used by |
| latest buzzword of 'IT-Industrialization' describes our | | | | agile people. |
| plan to create Henry Ford conveyor-belt-IT-processes | | | | You can't lead by walking in someone else's footsteps. |
| for lobotomized business users. | | | | If you don't innovate, your IT is not leading edge no |
| It gets worse. In 2005 Davenport and Harris further | | | | matter how buzzword compliant you are. |
| claimed in a MIT-Sloan article: "Rather than require | | | | Benchmarking IT against others who don't innovate will |
| people to identify the problems or to initiate the | | | | only pull everyone down to the same low level. But |
| analysis, companies typically embed decision-making | | | | then … you can show that you are among the |
| capabilities in the normal flow of work. Those systems | | | | best in your benchmark! |
| then sense online data, apply codified knowledge or | | | | Innovation - doing something new - always bears |
| logic, and make decisions all with minimal amounts of | | | | some risk. Be brave! |
| human intervention." | | | | Bibliography and References: |
| In "Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the | | | | Allen, Paul (2006). Service Orientation, winning |
| New Way to Be Smart" Ian Ayres too claims that | | | | strategies and best practices. ISBN 0521843367. |
| huge data sets allow previously impossible predictions | | | | Ayres, Ian (2007) Super Crunchers: Why |
| and that statistical methods are more accurate than | | | | Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart. |
| the more intuitive conclusions drawn by experts. | | | | ISBN 978-0553805406 |
| From my perspective, Business Intelligence produces | | | | Bohm, David, (1980) Wholeness and Implicate Order, |
| an unintelligible mess of data that has little to no | | | | ISBN-13: 978-0710003669 |
| meaning for business decisions, automated or not. | | | | Carr, N. G. (2004) Does IT Matter?: IT and the |
| Imagine that we not only make the processes more | | | | Corrosion of Competitive Advantage ISBN-13: |
| rigid but also the codified decision-making knowledge? | | | | 978-1591394440 |
| That will ruin each and every business because the | | | | Damelio, R. (1996) Basics of Process Mapping, ISBN-13: |
| `statistical data facts' are illusions and at best average | | | | 978-0527763169 |
| values from the past that do not apply to the current | | | | Damasio, Antonio (2005) Descartes' Error: Emotion, |
| point of decision. Face-to-face interviews with the | | | | Reason, and the Human Brain, ISBN 0-380-72647-5 |
| relevant managers, employees and customers will give | | | | Davenport, Thomas (1993), Process Innovation: |
| you an emotional intuitive feel for the right decision that | | | | Reengineering work through information technology |
| statistics won't. | | | | Draheim, D. & Weber, G. (2006) Trends in Enterprise |
| You might ask: Emotions? | | | | Application Architecture, ISBN-13: 978-3540327349 |
| I have been asked to replace 'emotions' with 'instinct' | | | | Erl, Thomas (2005). Service-Oriented Architecture: |
| because emotions is seen so negatively. I refuse! | | | | Concepts, Technology, and Design. ISBN 0-13-185858-0. |
| Instinct is more in the area of reflexes which do not | | | | Hammer, M. ; Champy, J. (1993), Reengineering the |
| require any thinking at all. Maybe feelings would be | | | | Corporation: A Manifesto … ISBN-13: |
| better, but feelings also require emotions deeper down | | | | 978-1863735056 |
| in our human nature. I can go with intuition because | | | | Hurwitz; Bloor; Baroudi; Kaufman (2006). Service |
| intuition is an emotional function. | | | | Oriented Architecture for Dummies. ISBN |
| Today's assumption is unfortunately that emotion or | | | | 0-470-05435-2. |
| intuition is the opposite of reason. Maybe that is not so. | | | | Johansson, Henry J. et.al. (1993), BPR: BreakPoint |
| Why can in the UK and the US the anti-depression | | | | Strategies for Market Dominance ISBN-13: |
| drug Prozac be detected in the rivers? Because | | | | 978-0471938835 |
| people are continuously forced to be reasonable and | | | | Newcomer, Eric; Lomow, Greg (2005). Understanding |
| not emotional. Look inside yourself and you will feel | | | | SOA with Web Services. ISBN 0-321-18086-0. |
| that it is against human nature and it makes us sick. | | | | Pulier, Eric; Hugh Taylor (2005). Understanding |
| Human decision-making is most likely an emotionally | | | | Enterprise SOA. ISBN 1-932394-59-1 |
| weighted pattern-matching ability of the brain. | | | | Rummler & Brache (1990), Improving Performance: |
| Rationality is only used for post-decisions justification or | | | | How to manage the white space … ISBN-13: |
| verification. Are not strong managers and | | | | 978-1555422141 |
| entrepreneurs mostly very emotional, even | | | | Sowell, Thomas, (1996) The Vision of the Anointed |
| unreasonable people? Absolutely! Pioneers such as | | | | ISBN-13: 978-0465089956 |
| Broca (1878), Papez (1937), and MacLean (1952) | | | | Taylor F. W. (1911) The Principles of Scientific |
| suggested that emotion is related to a group of | | | | Management, ISBN-13: 978-1434638205 |
| structures in the center of the brain called the limbic | | | | Watson, Thomas Jr. (1997) Father, Son and Company, |
| system, which includes the hypothalamus, cingulate | | | | ISBN-13: 978-0593020937 |
| cortex, and hippocampi among others. Antonio | | | | Internet resources: |
| Damasio - today Professor of Neuroscience at the | | | | SSA Research Note SPA-401-068, 12 April 1996, |
| University of Southern California - has long researched | | | | "'Service Oriented' Architectures, Part 1" |
| neural systems for memory, language, emotion, and | | | | SSA Research Note SPA-401-069, 12 April 1996, |
| decision-making. In his 1994 book, "Descartes' Error: | | | | "'Service Oriented' Architectures, Part 2" |
| Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain," he documents | | | | SOA Reference Model Technical Committee, OASIS |
| his discovery that "humans with dysfunctional | | | | (2006). A Reference Model for Service Oriented |
| emotional centers face grave difficulties in | | | | Architecture. (PDF). |
| decision-making." Thus human decisions - intuitive or not | | | | Rational Unified Process, IBM, Mar. 2005, |
| - are emotionally weighted and how do you want to | | | | www-3.ibm.com/software/awdtoolsrup. |
| encode that, Mr. Process-Analysis-Consultant? | | | | IEEE Std. 1003.1, Standard for Information Technology- |
| To improve decision making with the help of computing | | | | Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), IEEE, |
| we need to invent technology to model intuitive human | | | | 2004. |
| decision-making far beyond logical rules. While Ian | | | | E. Christensen et al., Web Services Description |
| Ayres mentions neural networks and pattern matching | | | | Language (WSDL) 1.1, World Wide Web Consortium |
| he fails to understand that both do not need statistical | | | | (W3C) note, Mar. 2001; |
| data but decision-points linked to real data. It is not | | | | SOAP Version 1.2, World Wide Web Consortium |
| important how many people took a certain decision, | | | | (W3C) recommendation, June 2003; |
| but what data pattern was used by each individual to | | | | SOA Blueprints, Middleware Research, Mar. 2005, |
| come to the decision. Therefore we do not need to | | | | Anderson, A. "IEEE Policy 2004 Workshop, 8 June |
| crunch meaningless and inaccurate data with unproven | | | | 2004, Comparing WSPL and WS-Policy," Sun Labs, |
| mathematical assumptions, but today's computing | | | | 2004; |
| power has to be used to interactively learn decisions | | | | Brian Foote, Joseph Yoder (1999) |
| from humans. | | | | Joe Kendricks, (2007) |
| And what about 'Agility'? | | | | Coenen, Alcedo (2006). SOA agility in practice (PDF). |
| I am serious: Agility is a human property and not | | | | Via Nova Architectura. |
| system functionality. What stops current organizations | | | | Jones, Steve (2005). Toward an acceptable definition |
| from being agile? The Java/XML 'Big Ball of Mud'? | | | | of service (PDF). IEEE Software. |
| Tayloristic BPM? Windows DLL hell? I say it is the lack | | | | Mittal, Kunal (2006). Requirements process for SOA |
| of agility in people and their small-minded resistance to | | | | projects, Part 1 of 3: Capturing requirements for an |
| true innovation. | | | | SOA application - Initial requirements to build out your |
| An agile IT department run by a truly agile CIO | | | | SOA (HTML). IBM Developerworks. |
| supported by an agile board creates an application | | | | Shan, Tony; Hua, Winnie (2006). Solution Architecture |
| platform that puts great power into the hands of the | | | | for N-Tier Applications (PDF). In Proc. of the 3rd IEEE |
| skilled business user who is willing to be agile himself. | | | | International Conference on Services Computing (SCC |
| In their SOA White Papers the likes of IBM, BEA, | | | | 2006), pp. 349-356. |
| TIBCO and Oracle name an endless array of technical | | | | Wada, Hiroshi; Suzuki, Junichi (2006). A Model-Driven |
| complexities to create SOA when there is not enough | | | | Development Framework for Non-Functional Aspects |
| IT manpower available on this planet to even do 2 % | | | | in Service Oriented Grids (PDF). In Proc. of 2nd IEEE |
| of such SOA projects (Source: Max Pucher, 2007, | | | | International Conference on Autonomic and |
| informed guess of 35 years IT). Remember, once the | | | | Autonomous Systems (ICAS 2006). |
| hole is so deep that you can't climb out, digging deeper | | | | Bieber, Guy (2000). Programming Service Oriented |
| will not improve your situation. | | | | Programming (HTML). Motorola. |
| KISS - Keep it simple, stupid! | | | | Gomolski, B. (2006) Computerworld Opinion, Oct. |
| Simplification is needed, and it was I who first humbly | | | | |