Fralick Says:
|
Instead,
SOA can only be embraced
as a long term, multi-year
plan aligned with other
product improvements and
re-engineering efforts.
What
do you say? Send
us your comments here
|
In
the software world, we call
it “Eating our own dog
food”. This rather
gross metaphor refers to a software
company that uses its own software
tools to actually develop the
end user applications.
When we use it ourselves, it
is thought, it just makes the
product better.
The
problem with eating one’s
own dog food always comes back
to “Will dogs eat it too?”
In other words, do the tools
have a more universal appeal?
But, when it comes to Services
Oriented Architectures (SOA)
there is a more important way
to think about it: “Does
the supply chain software vendor
really walk the walk?”
or just “Walk the talk?”
Walking
the Walk
when it comes to SOA simply
means this: The software
company has made the shift from
SOA being something their software
can do to what
the software really is.
In other words, the vendor has
taken the step to actually build
functional portions of their
system using the same tools
and technologies that make them
SOA capable.
Sometimes,
as a new software application
space emerges you will see a
lot of SOA capable packages
from the outset, as the companies
have no historical development
baggage. We’ve seen this,
for example, in the RFID software
area. A lot of these packages
were designed from scratch,
using the most modern component-oriented
development techniques or with
the concept of “services”
specifically in mind.
When
you look at products or categories
that have been around for a
long time, however, it is hard
to get from there to here with
regards to SOA. So, by
necessity, the vendor needs
to migrate in thoughtful steps.
Typically, it takes a lot more
than minor releases or product
add-ons. Instead, SOA
can only be embraced as a long
term, multi-year plan aligned
with other product improvements
and re-engineering efforts.
Not easy.
Which
is why I recently offered a
tongue-in-cheek scorecard for
cutting through the vendor SOA
hype and trying to determine
what’s real (See SOA
It Isn't So. . ., Supply
Chain Software: InfoWorld Blogger
Likes Our SOA Scorecard, Offers
His Own Alternative).
We’re
going to be looking at this
topic over a series of commentaries
and – drum roll please
– a new product review
feature in Supply Chain Digest.
While we’re going to be
reviewing products across the
entire spectrum of supply chain
software, hardware and services,
we’ll be devoting special
attention to SOA.
First
out of the shoot is a product
offering from i2 called the
Business Content Library (BCL),
built on its SOA platform. We’ll
offer a detailed review next
week, but in a quick preview,
I’d say i2 is definitely
walking the walk with its approach.
As
an SOA evangelist, that’s
great to see. Look for my review
of i2’s BCL next week,
and my blog and reviews on supply
chain technology on an on-going
basis.
Agree
or disgree with our expert's
perspective? What would you
add? Let us know your thoughts
for publication in the SCDigest
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and on the web site. Upon request,
comments will be posted with
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