John Crupi's Blog

Ok, ok, it's an overstatement. But the ROI of SOA is difficult, at best, to define and measure. Have you noticed that the press and blogosphere is filled with SOA implementers/analysts discussing the ROI of SOA and the idea that stand-alone SOA efforts are DOA? For a small snapshot of this teacup tempest, look no further than the recent commentary from SOA expert David Linthicum, the Nucleus Report on SOA ROI, and the subsequent commentary from ZDNet's Joe McKendrick and IT advisors Neil Macehiter and Neil Ward-Dutton.

While these experts differ on issues like the importance of SOA ROI, how to calculate SOA ROI (if at all), and why we don't have more/better of it, they all seem to agree on one thing: 'Enterprise-wide support for SOA hinges on the ability to demonstrate value to the business at large — more growth, revenue opportunities, and all that good stuff.' (Joe's words, not mine.) And that's where your job is at stake. Or, at least, the long-term support of your SOA efforts.

• Mashups can help create normalized 'virtual' services from sources that haven't been 'SOAed' yet. It's no secret that SOA efforts can take years. Until the formal SOA magic has been applied, a quick, standardized service can help users get started earlier than otherwise.
• Mashups let users 'right-size' the granularity of services. Now IT doesn't have to guess/study/analyze whether a service offers data that is 'too specific', 'too general', 'too dated', or 'too cold'.
• Mashups let users share their resulting services, making them a part of the service-generating network. Now IT doesn't have to do it alone.
• Mashups let end-users visualize the SOA in graphs, charts, tables, maps, etc. Instead of hoping the aging corporate portal has a place/way to get services visualized in the way(s) the users want , users can each do it themselves to meet their own ever-changing needs.
• Mashups let users join in data from outside the enterprise. Today's SOA efforts are largely inwardly-focused. But users often want to include external data in their work. Mashups don't care and good mashup software makes the actual location of a data service irrelevant.

SOA is still relatively new. Enterprise Mashups are, urguably, even newer. So you are likely just getting your Enterprise Mashup mojo going. But if SOA is on your enterprise to-do list, make sure you get Enterprise Mashups on that plan as well. It may not cost you your job, but it could move your SOA from 'questionable' to 'successful'.